‘Sometimes It Hurts’ Theatre Development

By Lisa Davis | February 22, 2023

2023 has begun with an exciting new phase of co-creation for Changing Relations. Our Associate Artists have begun working with our youth group partners, Creative Youth Opportunities and Auckland Youth and Community Centre, to create a brand new play centred around toxic teen relationships and how we can support young people who find themselves in these relationships.

If you’ve been following our work for a while, you’ll know we already have a domestic abuse-themed play in our portfolio. So why create a new one? The answer lies in the worrying statistics we encountered in the Safelives report, Safe Young Lives: Young People and Domestic Abuse:

  • Young people experience the highest rate of domestic abuse of any age group
  • Young women aged 16-19 experience this at twice the rate of young men
  • A quarter (25%) of girls – and 18% of boys – aged 13-17 have experienced some form of physical violence from an intimate partner
  • The rate of referrals into support services is lower than the percentage they make up of the population

What do we take from this?

It is only fairly recently (2013) that the governmental definition of domestic abuse has been extended to encompass those under the age of 18. And perhaps this is part of the problem behind the low referral rate for young people experiencing intimate partner violence. If we’re not expecting young people to be affected by domestic abuse, we may be a little blind to its incidence amongst this age group.

This is the starting point for our new project. We want to empower young people to become the first line of defence for each other:

  • To be ready to notice the red flags of unhealthy relationships
  • To be aware of the support that is available
  • To be empowered to signpost one another to that support in constructive ways

How will we do this?

We will use one of the stories from our book, Sometimes it Hurts – Amy’s story – as the starting point for our new project. Amy’s story highlights the risk of already vulnerable young people being targeted by charming but controlling individuals, and finding themselves in toxic relationships of their own.

This is particularly pertinent after the pandemic, in which it was widely reported that the intensity of lockdown exacerbated the incidence of domestic abuse. The NSPCC reports that the pandemic contributed towards a decline in wellbeing for many children and young people. A further Safelives insight report indicates that mental health difficulties are a common consequence of experiencing domestic abuse, for children as well as adults.

This makes it all the more important that we empower our young people to navigate what is healthy and what is toxic, to ensure their vulnerability does not lead them into a cycle of repeat victimisation, a cycle which absolutely does not have to be inevitable.

Sometimes it Hurts was originally produced through working together with young people. And it’s absolutely vital that young people continue to be involved in shaping this next stage of development.

Why?

Because we want the resulting play to resonate for the young people who experience it, to feel real in its representation of their age group. And so our fabulous writer, Bridget Hamilton, is working with young people from Bensham and Bishop Auckland, to build Amy’s story, imagining friends who might notice the impact her controlling relationship is having, and the trajectory that is possible for her if they signpost her to specialist support.

In a matter of weeks, Bridget will hand over the baton of creative development to script writer and director, Zoe Murtagh, who will support our young people to imagine how the characters and stories they have been developing around Amy could be dramatised on stage. In the summer term, artists Bridie Jackson and Michelle Harland will co-produce the soundscape and set to accompany the performance. We can’t wait to see what they come up with!

With thanks

None of this would be possible without the support of the funders who saw the value in what we hope to achieve with this project:

Thank you!

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