THEATRE REVIEW: Bird and Bees at The Sheffield Playhouse

Charlie Josephine’s play about failing sex education is all about change — changing bodies and changing ideas.

How come today’s teenagers are going through even worse traumas than before?

Is it any wonder they turn to their friends and others around them or the Internet or other sources to understand their emotions and relationships?

This provocative hour-long piece is set in the wake of explicit pictures being shared in school and asks the questions that should already be being asked. Such as consent, sexualisation of female bodies and gender identity.

It does so while challenging stereotypes and speaking up for young people.

When Jack shares nude pictures of his girlfriend Sherelle, his friends Aarron and Leilah kick off in assembly and get a detention along with prefect Maisey and fellow pupil Billy.

They are tasked with writing a speech for the following day addressing the incident and apologising for their behaviour.

Clever use of music, lighting and staging create a feeling of being inside social media itself.

As the truth emerges about the photos, each character shows another side, literally as if they've been struck by an electric current in an ingenious effect.

The stage play, now a film, was written with a school-age audience in mind and is widely available to be seen by teachers and students.

It pulls no punches on headteachers paying lip service to the issues.

Josephine goes to the heart of the matter - why is it so hard to come to terms with our own lives and loves.

They tackle mental health, differing perspectives on feminism, abuse, macho competitiveness, shame and objectification in a funny, sharp and insightful drama created out of a little, yet into such a lot.

So much is going on in such a short time.

Maisy plays against type to examine frustration at the limits imposed on women’s bodies, Aarron reveals a sensitive side in his recollection of the day when Jack shared those photos, while Leilah asserts her own intelligence.

The cast are all excellent.

Sandra Belarbi’s Maisy wears her heart on her sleeve as she learns to shake off her parents' self-limiting past; Richard Logun, as Aarron, convinces as a young man confronting his former self; Dumile Sibanda shows qualities in depth as Leilah; and Milo McCarthy is compelling as the outsider Billy who really gets what's gone wrong.

As the four say at one point: “Things have got to change.” That’s the leaving off spot for more debate.

Sex education has to not just keep up with the times but chart a way forward to stop young people’s lives being permanently damage.