Review by Eavan Prenter
⭐️⭐️⭐
Coming of age stories are my jam. Ladybird, Booksmart, Bend It Like Beckham, Clueless, Little Women, The Princess Diaries - you name them, I love them, and when you make it a musical (Sing Street, I’m looking at you), I love them even more. So, on paper, TINK is just my type. A musical monologue about a young fairy navigating growing up in the modern world, Kat Kleve’s and Lizzy Connolly’s show had all the right ingredients, but, for me, it just didn’t quite soar.
The story starts with Tink as a five year old. She’s just heard the story of Peter Pan and her parents have explained how Tinkerbell used to be a full sized fairy like Tink but then she shrank. This makes no sense to Tink because why would you not want to be big enough to reach high things - “like biscuits”. She also doesn’t understand why Wendy and Tinkerbell wouldn’t be friends like Tink and her best friend, Chloe.
Kat Kleve not only composed the music, but also plays the role of Tink with the commitment and charisma of a director’s dream. She nails a kid’s enthusiasm and off-balance mannerisms and delivers every joke beautifully, while her voice is reminiscent of a Disney princess; all crisp and sweet like a fresh apple.
Unfortunately, the songs don’t quite match her talent. The first is the traditional “I want” song, but it’s hard to tell exactly what it is that Tink wants - to write her own story, to win, to be…great? The problem with a story about a happy five year old is that they don’t have much to say, as if there isn’t anything specific driving her, or counteracting the sweetness. Where other stage shows about children contrast the light with something more dark and grown up like the miners’ strikes in Billy Elliot or the adult narrator in The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Without that in TINK, it feels like something is missing.
One strength I found is when the story jumps forward to tween and then teen Tink. Struggling to fit in while also doing well in school, especially since she is really good at mathsm, this section features some of the best lines in the show (including a few great maths puns) and a truly ominous soundtrack of mocking teen laughter.
Having covered the negative messages girls receive about sports and maths, it’s time to talk about double standards around make-up, drinking and up-skirting; then internalised misogynistic messages from mothers and the subtle ways that girls put down other girls. Don’t get me wrong, I think these are serious problems, but covering them all one by one starts to make every chapter in Tink’s life feel like a tickbox and doesn’t leave room to properly explore any one issue fully.
Finally, after a personal tragedy and some reflection, Tink decides to accept her whole self. Standing under a sky of lightbulbs (thanks to Rachael Duthie’s stylish lighting design), she sings a plea to girls to speak loudly, stand tall and fly high. None of this is bad advice. None of Tink’s story feels false. The problem is that it’s not new. Every woman in the audience (and I hope at least a few of the men) knows the million ways in which the world tells women to be less, and that the dimming of women’s voices is not a thing of the past. Where I think TINK went wrong was by simply showing the world as it is, not how it could be. By setting the story in an imaginary world of fairies, Kleve and Connolly had the opportunity to re-write the rules, but, instead, the story played out in exactly the same way as in the real world, but with a few fairy cake jokes and on-the-nose metaphors about lights and wings.
Like its lead character, TINK has so much potential. Taking on a topic of real importance that I certainly haven’t seen enough of on stage and it tried to tackle it from a fresh perspective, but, for me, it didn’t quite go far enough by not following through on its fairy concept or fleshing out its characters enough for them to feel real. At times it felt like it didn’t quite know what it wanted to be with the rhyming giving an impression of a children’s show, but it wasn’t quite that either. If you have a spare hour and want to see a charming performer then this isn’t a bad way to spend your time, but I’m more excited to see what Kleve and Connolly do next.
TINK plays at The Other Palace until 20th October. Tickets from www.theotherpalace.co.uk/tink
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