I expected Mess to be the highlight of my first fringe and it was.
People in my town are still talking about Caroline Horton’s show You’re Not Like The Other Girls Chrissy, the true life story of her eccentric French grandmother. I was concerned about how she would manage to turn her own experiences of anorexia and recovery into an hour of entertainment but I needn’t have worried: it was a triumph.
You already know the show is going to be about anorexia but why does the set look like a gigantic sandcastle covered in beige bath mats? From the musician/narrator we quickly learn that the sandcastle is a metaphor for how anorexics like to feel – high up and in control. (Not sure what the bath mats represent!) We are also informed that this is a true story and that the actors know we are watching a play. It’s a clever device that made me feel I was being invited into Josephine’s anxious teenage world without being made to feel like a voyeur.
I loved Caroline’s calmness in portraying Josephine and the effective ways in which she communicated Josephine’s need for control, her lack of spontaneity, her confusion about whether she really wanted to recover and most graphically her absolute TERROR of being made to eat something she hadn’t planned to eat. It was obvious that all those around her, including friends, doctors and therapists did not really understand Josephine's point of view. Just like them, I found myself hoping for a happy ending instead of the question mark left hanging.
Sounds quite grim, doesn’t it? But then I forgot to say, most of the time, it’s actually very funny.
It’s probably not a show for rural venues but handled very carefully, perhaps with Q & A sessions, workshops and support available afterwards, it could be a very rewarding experience in a secondary school environment.
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