The writing is pitch-perfect and deftly tackles the themes of identity, longing, and acceptance without ever descending into the mawkish or the preachy. Rachael (based on a real person) is brought beautifully by to life by Graham Elwell in a bravura performance packed with subtlety and charm. A small gem of a play. Go see it.

See this play. It’s an enjoyable and thought provoking evening, illuminated by a performance of style and charm by Graham Elwell.

Not without brilliant splices of humour throughout, this indelible play is a must-see. For too long the transgender community has been misrepresented – or poorly represented – onstage and in film and TV. Thought-provoking, admirable and a spectacular delight, Rachael’s Café is something you can’t afford to miss out on experiencing.

Danser has captured a very real story in Rachael’s Café. It’s a moving and thought-provoking piece, devoid of sensationalism and infused with humour.

This debut by Lucy Danser simply gets it right on every level. You will leave feeling enriched, encouraged and, above all, safe in the knowledge you have spent an hour of your life well.

By the heart-wrenching, visually dramatic end, Rachael’s struggles with gender identity, crucially caused by other people’s problems with it, not her own, become a metaphor for challenges most people face at some point to “be your own person”, whoever that might be.

Lucy Danser has created an amazing play from Rachael’s story that is as fascinating as anything in the West End at the moment, all served with the love that the lady herself serves her customers.

For anyone relatively unaware of what being transgender means, this ordinariness, this ability to see things as they are without great angst, without reference to sex, without the remotest tinge of the bizarre, is probably the greatest strength of this play.

It’s a really touching, heart-warming story, very real, very visceral and you often feel like you’re intruding in someone’s mind – which is the best kind of theatre.

Perceptive, witty exploration of obsessive compulsive disorder and mother-daughter love.

This is not just an examination of one person’s experience of mental health but a touching and engaging story of the tight bonds of love between a mother and daughter.

The skill of this two-hander is the interplay between Felicity (Kerry Fitzgerald) and Marie, played particularly memorably by Lisa Keast, as genial, homely, confused, and the initial object of the problem she will try to solve.

Danser is good at digging into the emotional mess of the situation and exploring how outside influences – porn, religion, their parents – can distort young people’s ideas about intimacy.

Maryam’s assertive voice clashes with Alex’s hesitancy and Madani’s obliviousness, which prevent the production from being preachy and mean that we have an array of views to consider. It’s these sensitive discussions, focusing on problems concerning consent and sexual assault, which make this a thought-provoking piece.

It's a beautiful touch that allows honesty and raw episodic individual takes on events, something that feels a different to most productions being showcased at The Vault Festival this year

It is a joyful, witty coming of age tale. The twist when it comes is brilliantly done. There’s a sleight of hand which means you don’t even notice it has happened, making the change in tone even more shocking when you realise.

The script is beautifully written (Lucy Danser), laced with moments of poetry and left without a resolution. The characters work together seamlessly and the lines reflect their uncontained love for each other at a stage in life when, even though everything is shared, everything remains utterly mysterious.

Indeed, the twin combinations of teenage ignorance around sex, and the perpetual pressure to become sexual adults, feel like they are the true villains of Danser’s piece.

If This Is Normal never forces that conversation into the neat and tidy boundaried and binary bucket of right and wrong. The decision to have each character use direct address is an effective persuasive technique, which allows the audience to see three different perspectives along the spectrum. I applaud them for starting to give voice to the different facets of this subject, and for raising the quality of the debate beyond the simple binary.

Powerfully performed by a first-rate cast it's a funny sugar-rush of exceptional energy until suddenly, yet with almost tragic inevitability, it takes a turn into genuinely troubling waters.

There are a number of nice light moments in the play, but this is a hard-hitting piece of theatre which I would definitely recommend.

I am so grateful that this play exists, and that I had the opportunity to watch it. Important conversations happen at every moment from the beginning of the show till the very last word and yet it’s balanced in a way that doesn’t feel like an overwhelming amount of conversation as an audience member.

Danser condenses a lot into 80-minutes but it’s to the work’s credit that the ideas seem to have time to breathe and settle. It’s a challenging but sympathetic look at coming of age and the confusion and wrong steps this can create.

In this funny, punchy and realistic play by Lucy Danser, my teenage daughter and I couldn’t help getting attached to the three characters and our hearts sank as the cast perfectly conveyed the weight of external pressures on young people’s emotions and their sense of intimacy in a world when online porn is sometimes the only compass…

If This Is Normal is a fantastic, powerful play that is skillfully written and performed. It maintains the delicate balance between comedy and discussing complex, profound themes.

If This Is Normal is a very funny comedy which is an excellent reminder that growing up and having your first relationship is just awkward for everyone, and social media and the internet have added further layers of discomfort and clumsiness.

Lucy Danser’s terrific script combines the Millennial angst of Sally Rooney with a David Mamet-style look at the subjective nature of sexual consent.

Telling a difficult but necessary story, this acclaimed production takes us back to the most awkward and confusing time of our lives.