Tink was a big, brilliant young fairy until one day, in a tragic cliché, Tink began to shrink.
Performed by Kat Kleve, directed by Lizzy Connolly, and co-created by the pair – book by Lizzy Connolly and music by Kat Kleve – Tink is a nostalgic, uplifting musical monologue that tackles the modern experience of being female and the societal pressures that come with navigating from child to tween to teen to adult.
Tink isn’t a retelling of Peter Pan, or “an origin story of Tinker Bell”. This is an imperfect, messy ‘female gaze fairy tale’ in all its ugly glory. The play leads audiences through the story of one shrinking fairy on the path to one crucial question: Why do so many girls who start powerful, unfiltered, big, bold, loud and without prejudice or shame, begin to shrink just as they should be growing?
Why are the only female characters in ‘Peter Pan’ (Tinker Bell and Wendy) pitted against each other for Peter Pan’s affection? Why can’t both shine? And why do we see this misogynistic narrative played out over and over in modern media? Britney versus Christina, Meghan versus Kate. Hailey versus Selena.
From the stories we tell our children, to the language we use, Tink unpicks the well-worn narratives we – often unwittingly – communicate to our children in their formative years and suggests how we might unlearn those patterns, both for ourselves and for future generations.
Tink is for everyone who has, or knows someone who has shrunk themselves and in doing so, has not been able to shine their full potential. Flying in the face of the patriarchy, with tunes and themes that will cement themselves in your mind, audiences will leave the auditorium humming the melodies and feeling empowered to help themselves and those around them to grow.
Tink’s short, four-day run at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol in March of this year generated so much wildly enthusiastic feedback, that plans were hurriedly put in place to take the show to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe where it will now have its first full run.
