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.