Criminal Minds Star Kirsten Vangsness Brings One-Woman Show MESS To Edinburgh Fringe

MESS is written by and stars Kirsten Vangsness - star of 132 episodes of hit US TV show Criminal Minds and directed by Lisa Sanaye Dring.

Celebrating chaos and delving deep into disorder, MESS plays with subject matter as seemingly incongruous as visible quantum objects, kitten-hating fathers, linoleum-patterned mothers, hypocritical Jesus-freak teenyboppers named Tiffany, imaginary monsters and Christian rock, taking audiences to new places as it explores connection and the nonlinearity of time.

Wholly unsurprising and pretty atypical of your standard solo show model, if you like your plotlines logically formulated and your content sensible and seamless, then best beware! If you're ready to think new thoughts and even laugh new laughs, strap in and get set for this quantumly entangled adventure...

Inspired by a Ted Talk called Making Sense of a Visible Quantum Object by Aaron O'Connell, MESS is a high-spirited, madcap rollick into the fragmented and frenetic psyche of writer and performer Kirsten Vangsness. Personal details, obscure references and poignant philosophical insights rub up against each other in catalytic combination, all pointing towards the exuberantly extolled conclusion that we are all a mess. Best embrace it.

MESS is driven by powerhouse storytelling from Vangsness. She is best known for playing emotional mastermind Penelope Garcia on CBS's Criminal Minds, but most loved and admired on the LA performance scene for her gutsy, energetic and unusual stage presence. The show has been performed at the Hollywood Fringe Festival, The Brooklyn Gemini Art Center and most recently at the 2019 San Francisco Sketchfest.

Kirsten Vangsness started writing in fifth grade after she read Harriet the Spy, developed a huge crush on Harriet, and reasoned that the only way to win her heart would be learning to write. After college, she began writing her own monologues for casting director workshops which bloomed into writing plays. The 2012 production of Vangsness' Potential Space earned her a nomination for the Los Angeles Weekly Award "Best Playwright of the Year". She has co-written four episodes of the hit show Criminal Minds and is currently finishing her third pilot for ABC with her writing partner, Phinny Kiyomura. She has been awarded the Open Fist Excellence in the Arts Award and the Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award. Vangsness has been published in the Los Angeles Times Magazine, and AIRMAIL: taking Women of Letters to the world. Acting credits include Everything You Touch (Boston Court), I Wanna Hold Your Hand, A Mulholland Christmas Carol, Spider Bites, Potential Space (NOTE) and Fat Pig (Geffen). On film she is found in Kill Me, Deadly, Dave Made a Maze, Dani and Devine Meet the Apocalypse.

Kirsten Vangsness performs 'Mess' at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival from 2nd - 24th August (in rep with Cleo, Theo and Wu). For tIckets and more information: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/fempire-mess-by-kirsten-vangsness