Birds and Bees is a new play by critically acclaimed writer Charlie Josephine and an exploration of identity, consent, sex positivity, online safety and intersectionality. A co-production with Sheffield Theatres and Theatre Centre, the play was made in conversation with young people around the UK through our Future Makers process and is touring to venues and schools throughout spring 2023.

In the play, the characters are struggling to talk about some of the things they are are going through, and when they don’t talk about it their feelings build up in their body. In the show we call these moments ‘glitches’.

Here, actor Milo McCarthy talks specifically about their character, Billy. For Billy, their glitches come from anxiety around feeling misunderstood, and feeling lost and disconnected as they struggle to talk about their gender identity. Sometimes this anxiety comes out as panic attacks.

For Children’s Mental Health Week 2023, we wanted to link you to some resources, activities and organisations that help young people. You can access them here:

https://www.theatre-centre.co.uk/projects/mental-health-resources/

We hope you find them useful.