After an acclaimed premiere at Newcastle’s Alphabetti Theatre in 2023, Tiny Fragments of Beautiful Light is set to hit the road on a UK tour. An immersive, interactive exploration of one woman’s confusing journey of self-discovery, Tiny Fragments of Beautiful Life explores the under-represented female experience of autism through heartfelt storytelling and comedy.
Tiny Fragments of Beautiful Light follows Elsa, a kind, funny and quirky girl whose life has never been mundane or short of struggles. Throughout her adolescent years, school was always a nightmare, and romance a mystery, until now. Elsa meets Carmen, who seems to hold the key to unlocking Elsa’s authentic self. This comedy drama is a celebration of the joy and freedom that comes when we live as we truly are, and not as the world thinks we should.
Whilst attitudes towards autism are changing, with more guidance around autism diagnoses for men and boys, many autistic women and girls still struggle to receive the support they need. Tiny Fragments of Beautiful Light is Davies’s response to this lack of visibility, in which she shifts the focus to highlight the intricacies of living with autism as a woman. Informed by her own lived experience of being diagnosed with autism, she creates an important platform for female neurodiversity.
Writer Allison Davies comments, As the saying goes, if you’ve met a neurodivergent person, you’ve met one neurodivergent person. So, while it might represent a group of people, at its heart Tiny Fragments of Beautiful Light is a human story about an autistic woman who’s as strong and as flawed, as funny and as irritating as the next person. When I began writing the show during the doldrum days of lockdown I had no idea if it was a story people might want to engage with. I gave myself permission to write with the brakes off, with the result that the story is closer to my heart than anything I’ve presented up to now. It’s been an absolute joy and a privilege to work on it with such a talented and dynamic creative team. Thanks to their input I’m proud of where Tiny Fragments of Beautiful Light is today, with all its party quirks, and I hope people enjoy it and find it relatable.
