By Caroline Horton. Directed by Alex Swift. A Caroline Horton & Co./China Plate production. A PuSh International Performing Arts Festival presentation. At the Waterfront Theatre on January 19. Continues until January 22

“Don’t leave!” jokes a performer when the subject of Mess is announced to be anorexia nervosa, acknowledging the discomfort the subject might provoke. “I hugged an anorexic once,” he goes on, “and it was very uncomfortable—all those bones sticking out.”

That moment, with its combination of candour and irreverence, represents what works best about Mess, a show intended to reach young audiences without condescending to them.

English actor-playwright Caroline Horton is Josephine, who with the help of her friend Boris (Hannah Boyde) and musician Sistahl (Seiriol Davies) is putting on a play about her experiences with an eating disorder serious enough to land her in the hospital. Josephine admits that it’s hard to figure out the play’s beginning, because the discovery emerged gradually that her anxiety could be managed through an obsessive regimen of controlling and tracking her food intake. The details in her recollection are powerful: a “treat” consists of a trip to the drugstore to weigh herself on a scale that provides printouts; later, at a rehab clinic, her copy of Shakespeare’s complete works is confiscated because she’s using it for step-ups.

Fiammetta Horvat’s simple set—a woolly platform colonized by a parasol on which Josephine hangs medals that represent her achievements, and a duvet that symbolizes the “encompassing and comforting” nature of her illness—reinforces the character’s isolation, as do the increasingly awkward scenes in which her good-natured friend, Boris, struggles to figure out how to help, or even connect with, Josephine.

Stylistically, the play is a mixed bag. Horton’s Josephine is emotionally restrained, suggesting how much of her turmoil is internal. But it’s unclear why both Boyde’s Boris and Davies’s Sistahl are clown figures, and the effect of some of Davies’ songs, which neither advance the plot nor offer insight into character, is to drag down the show’s already slow pace. 

Still, Mess is a courageous piece of theatre that tackles a difficult issue without offering any easy answers. Its insight and compassion are worth sharing.