Opinion with Lucy Danser

Sexual consent is a famously difficult topic to discuss, but rarely more so than with teenagers and young adults. Regardless of how good an educator or parent's intentions are, the conversation is usually riddled with discomfort, an inability to judge how specific to get and concern over whether the rhetoric is becoming overly soapboxy. It's a topic that, like many other tricky ones, can hugely benefit from being explored through drama.

Perhaps the biggest advantage theatre has over all these adults awkwardly trying to deliver information, is simply the ability to speak directly to students. With a play there's no need for a facilitator (although by all means use the piece as a conversational jumping off point later) because the pertinent information is created and shaped to be expressed and received as is. In If This Is Normal all three protagonists are teenagers, communicating their own experiences as they occur - they're not there to lecture, instead they're making the mistakes so that students can see the consequences play out in real time. Though the characters and their experiences are fictionalised, they're based on true stories, so the information being imparted is absolutely relevant.

If This Is Normal at Chatback Theatre is partnering with the Schools’ Consent Project who have a two-pronged approach to discussing sex and consent with secondary school pupils. As lawyers, they have a focus on the legal definitions of consent, sexting, and one's rights. However, they also acknowledge the hugely individual aspect of sex and consent and have an equal focus on personal boundaries and challenging toxic ideas. It's this part of their educational approach that makes our collaboration effective. In If This Is Normal, as in most good drama, our characters each have different understandings, opinions, and experiences regarding sex. The eventual fallout between the three results from a complicated combination of these in addition to their differing personalities, the interference of outside influences, and much more.

In theatre we're able to represent the messiness of real life and provide a space where different facets of the same situation can be argued. While we do of course have to bring the piece to a close, we don't have to force anything to a foregone conclusion, leaving plenty of opportunities for discussion to continue once the play's over. The joy of theatre is that it provokes thought and emotion, rather than dictates answers. In regards to sex and consent education, this results in giving young people more agency to discover this huge part of life in their own way.

Lucy Danser is a writer, storyteller, podcaster and OCD advocate. Her play This Is Normal is on a UK tour this spring.