Mess and You're Not Like The Other Girls Chrissy

(Paperback)

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Mess: Josephine is putting on a play - Boris and Sistahl help. It's about anorexia; but don't let that put you off - they are used to the big issues - and today they will tackle a particularly thin elephant in the room. Obsessed with obsession, addiction, and not wanting to get out of bed, Mess is a play with songs from The Stage's 2010 Best Solo Performer Award winner Caroline Horton. You're Not Like the Other Girls, Chrissy: January 1945. Paris has been liberated. Christiane, an eccentric and acutely myopic Parisian waits at Gare Du Nord for a ticket to England to be reunited with her fianc. Whilst she waits, this gloriously irrepressible mademoiselle recounts the story of her love affair with Cyril, a tongue-tied English teacher from Staffordshire. You're Not Like Other Girl's Chrissy is a fond, comical and ultimately poignant portrait of one woman's experience of love and war. This programme text coincides with China Plate Theatre's production of Mess, which is at the Traverse in Edinburgh for August 2012 and then tours the UK until the end of September. You're Not Like Other Girls, Chrissy will play at the Bristol Old Vic for a week with another week on tour to come after.

Reviews

Gathers in both charm and emotional engagement until even a hardened hack may be on the brink of tears. Winsome in all the best ways, this Horton may not be hearing a "Who" for very long * Financial Times *
A wryly self-deprecating piece -- Neil Cooper * Herald *
Exquisite in its sensitivity * Scotsman *
A touching insight into the cruel grip of an eating disorder and a sense of the near impossibility of curing it in anything but the most patient and painstaking way. -- Mark Fisher * Scotland on Sunday *
[Mess] comes perilously close to genius and announces Horton as a major, major talent. * Time Out *
Simple and heartfelt feels like a real labour of love (on You're Not Like The Other Girls Chrissy) -- Lyn Gardner * Guardian *
One of the oddest, funniest, saddest pieces of theatre Ive seen in some time ... Mess could be worthy and unwatchable but its not. Rather it is informative and witty and constantly prods away at the strangeness of its subject matter ... packed with insights. -- Alice Jones * Telegraph *

Author Bio

Caroline Horton is a writer and performer, based in Birmingham. The pieces she creates begin with an idiosyncratic, personal story from which something emerges that is universally moving and funny. Always looking to expose a story's messy mixture of comedy, tragedy and whatever lies in between in a playful stage language that is visually and textually rich and immediate, Horton's work is as accessible as it is insightful and has been presented at theatres, village halls and festivals in the UK and abroad. Horton has recently been made an artistic associate at The Bush theatre and is a member of The Optimists network of young theatre-makers in the Midlands.