“How’d you smash your phone?” a friend asks Arabella Essiuedu in the teaser for “I May Destroy You.” This question makes Arabella (Michaela Coel) freeze in her tracks. “I don’t know,” she says. What she does know is that, after a night out with her friends, she woke up with a cut on her forehead. “I’ve got this thing in my head of, like, this guy,” Arabella also reveals.

The spot suggests that Arabella was drugged, and likely sexually assaulted, while at a nightclub. But Arabella can’t remember what exactly happened and is having a hard time accepting that she was attacked. “Now you’re calling it something I never…,” she says, trailing off while talking to her friends. She can’t bring herself to say “rape” or “assault.”

Created, written, and executive produced by Coel, “I May Destroy You” is described as an exploration of “sexual consent and where, in the new landscape of dating and relationships, the distinction between liberation and exploitation lies.”

As the synopsis suggests, Arabella is hesitant to label her experience as anything — it seems, per the teaser, that she’ll cross that bridge once she figures out what happened. “I need to, you know, just gather the pieces,” she says. “Any of the pieces.”

Coel wrote, created, produced, and starred in coming-of-age comedy series “Chewing Gum.” She received two BAFTA Awards for her performance. Her other screen credits include “Black Earth Rising,” “Been So Long,” and “Black Mirror.”

Coel revealed that she was sexually assaulted when she delivered the MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival in 2018. She also described how a producer sexually harassed her. “We have one very clear message in our industry: this has to change,” she said. “This will require all of us working together, establishing professional workplaces, calling out inappropriate behavior and – most importantly – listening to and supporting anyone who has experienced harassment.”

“I May Destroy You” will debut on HBO in June. No specific premiere date has been announced yet.