EDINBURGH 2023: Review: TINK, Underbelly Clover

It’s hard to believe there are any origin stories that haven’t been explored yet, given the success of previous shows such as Unfortunate at multiple Fringe festivals past, but there is still one, tiny tale to be told: that of a certain fairy from JM Barrie’s Peter Pan and how she ended up so small. 

The audience is met with a Pinterest-perfect stage with aesthetically pleasing wire lightbulbs dangling from the ceiling, a coat hook strewn with flowery clothes, and a guitar.

Kat Klee, who largely crafted the show and performs the role of Tink, bounds on stage decked in familiar pastel green hues, eager to tell us of the hour to come where she will retell the story of Tinkerbell, in a modern way, one that wasn’t written by a man in Victorian times, where she’s pitted against another woman (because she “likes other girls”). She then takes us back to 2008 where she delightfully embodies a stubborn and determined five-year-old at a fairy school sports day.

The audience is taken through Tink’s childhood and time as a teenager, familiar to anyone who was at school in the 2000s and 2010s, full of classroom (and later social media) politics and drama. With each knock to her confidence, her light dims slightly, accompanied by an appropriate thud and light pulse on the stage.

Klee ably accompanies herself on the guitar playing a handful of charming songs on wanting to be the brightest star, to the turmoil of friendship, including some clever lyrics of a mathematical persuasion about the tribal nature of school social circles and social media presence.

There are some clever attempts to create an alternative fairy universe, however, this could have stretched further to create pixie parodies of the social media websites enjoyed by Tink and her “friends”.

At times it wasn’t entirely clear whether the show was taking place in the real world with Facebook and all the trimmings or elsewhere. Being mindful of the careful tightrope of parody, particularly when it comes to Disney franchises, there could have still been more suggestions of Neverland and suchlike to help remind the audience that this story centres around Tink and not just any millennial/Gen Z fairy, or female character for that matter.

While Lizzy Connolly’s director notes do make clear the show isn’t meant to be a direct parody of Peter Pan, audience goers who don’t take the opportunity to read the programme notes available on every other seat may well leave feeling a little brighter by Tink’s warming words of affirmation, but may also be left disappointed having expected something a bit more obviously Disney-adjacent.

TINK at Underbelly Clover until 20 August

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