Olivier Award nominee, Caroline Horton, will revive her 2012 hit Mess for audiences of children and young people on the main stage of the Traverse Theatre as part of Scotland’s Imaginate Festival before a UK tour. Following its award-winning debut at Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2012 (The Stage Award for Best Ensemble), Mess has toured throughout the UK, visiting theatres, arts centres, schools and colleges, also providing workshops for young people to help open up a conversation on the subject matter. Based on Caroline’s own experiences of anorexia, this funny and poignant play with songs is a three hander about obsession, addiction and letting go.
Josephine is putting on a play – Boris and Sistahl help. It’s about anorexia. But don’t let that put you off. Unflinchingly they confront big issues (and extremely tiny ones). Today they will tackle a particularly thin elephant in the room. Obsession, addiction and not wanting to get out of bed: a play with songs from 2013 Olivier Award nominated Caroline Horton (You’re Not Like Other Girls Chrissy).
Mess offers an authentic insight that confronts big issues and challenges popular misconceptions. It was developed with the help of experts from King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry and BEAT, the UK’s leading charity supporting people affected by eating disorders.
“I saw Mess in a school which had a theatre attached to it, and there were lots of kids there. Afterwards I said to a teacher that it was great they managed to get so many kids to come out in the evening. She explained that half of them had already seen it that morning, and came back to see it again. I really enjoyed it, but to get the endorsement that it meant so much to those kids, I knew something really interesting was going on with that production.” Imagine Director, Tony Reekie on programming Mess for his final Festival.
Mess features Hannah Boyde, Caroline Horton and Seiriol Davies and is directed by Alex Swift with music by Seiriol Davies, Design by Fiammetta Horvat and lighting design by Andy Purves.
MESS UK TOUR
14-16 May 2015
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
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19 – 20 May 2015
The Albany, London
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21 May 2015
The North Wall, Oxford
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22 May 2015
The Brewhouse, Burton On Trent
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24 May 2015
Salisbury Playhouse
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