It’s theatrical, but it’s pretty confronting.

In the play, 18-year-old student Kelsey Armitage is very nearly destroyed when compromising pictures of her are posted on Facebook.

As part of her master’s degree in creative writing at the University of Wollongong, Jackson, who also wrote “Handle It”, studied the techniques of Swedish acting teacher Yat Malmgren.

The Malmgren method, Hayes tells “CityNews”, asks actors to go deeply into their every gesture, “even the movement of their eyes”. Heavily influenced by Jung, he suggested that characters’ inner attitudes can be divided into six different types, perfect for the story of Kelsey and her Facebook tormentors.

Hayes believes Malmgren’s intuition-based approach to acting assists in showing Kelsey through the lens of the six other characters, especially when victims of rape and other attacks are frequently humiliated online by “friends” hiding behind a keyboard.

The subject matter, Hayes agrees, is of enormous contemporary public interest and yet, oddly, few plays have been staged about the question. As a person not from Gen Y, she uses Facebook sparingly, but knows that many younger people go into their account more than twice a day, often all the time, structuring their own images.

“Before this, I didn’t know how viral photos could become,” Hayes says.

Jackson, she says, has written “a challenging piece of work”, one that is strengthened by the method, as she places the different characters and interacts with others, even though it’s just her on stage.

Malmgren has been particularly useful in helping Jackson to play the part of Kelsey’s sister, Alexa, who swings in dream-like inconsistency, backwards and forwards, sometimes supporting her sister and sometimes reprimanding her for wearing provocative clothing and other perceived faults.

“Handle It”, in asking whether women can “handle” the humiliation of Facebook leaks, undoubtedly puts a feminist case, yet Hayes and Jackson are certain it will be an eye-opener to men, too.

“Handle It,” at Street 2, The Street Theatre, March 13-15, bookings to 6247 1223 or thestreet.org.au