Playing in the Gray Area: The role of participatory theatre in shifting cultural narratives

This article examines the discursive implications of Gray Area , a participatory play created in 2017 to explore ambiguous moments of sexual consent – situations that often lead to shame and misunderstanding. While not originally conceived within an explicitly discursive framework, this retrospective analysis reveals how Gray Area ’s use of participatory narrative structures enabled it to challenge the prevailing ‘permission discourse’ of affirmative consent. Drawing on concepts of discourse analysis and cultural framing, this study highlights how the play’s particular dramaturgy – through audience intervention, improvisation and structured decision-making – guided audiences from a legalistic, transactional model of consent towards a more relational, context-sensitive ‘discourse of understanding’ that better reflects the complexities of real-world consent negotiation. In tracing this shift, the study positions participatory theatre as a powerful space for reimagining social constructs, offering insights into its potential to reshape public understandings of power, agency and social responsibility.