THE DROWNING GIRLS Next Onstage for Distraction Theatre Company

Distraction Theatre Company brings The Drowning Girls - written by Beth Graham, Charlie Tomlinson and Daniela Vlaskalic - to life August 18-26 at Nashville's Darkhorse Theater.

"The high-spirited drama" comments on marriage, murder, and what it means to be a woman, according to a press release from the company.

From Serial to The Jinx, the true crime genre is dominating popular culture. Many Americans are enthralled with the exploits of prolific serial killers. George Joseph Smith was one of those killers. From 1912 to 1914, Smith married and subsequently murdered three wives. A smooth-talking con man, he played off the naiveté of his victims and the insurmountable pressure placed on them by a society that believed they had no worth unless they belonged to a man.

But The Drowning Girls doesn't pay homage to homicide, rather it focuses on the victims. In the world of the drowning girls, the desperate, murderous acts of Smith, a character the audience never sees, are far from the viewer's mind as they're carried through the whimsical rememberings and playful, if somewhat macabre, interactions of Alice, Bessie and Margaret. The three brides meet after their lives have been taken to recount the starkly similar stories of their whirlwind courtship and sudden demise.

Distraction welcomes an all-new cast for this production with Reilly O'Connell (Alice), Corinne Bupp (Bessie) and Becky Wahlstrom (Margaret).

"I'm excited to work with this cast of professionals," says Randall Pike, Distraction artistic director. "Their jobs will be difficult both technically, since they'll be soaking wet throughout the show, and artistically. The play is essentially an exercise in victimology, where exploring the life and mindset of a criminal's target is essential to solving the crime."

In fact, the real-life case the play is based on marked the first time that forensics were used in trial.

The Drowning Girls runs August 18-26 at Darkhorse Theater, 4610 Charlotte Pike. Tickets are $15 and curatin is at 7:30 p.m. for Friday and Saturday performances, with Sunday, August 20, curtain is at 5 p.m. Industry nights are Tuesday and Wednesday, August 22 and 23 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets available at http://squareup.com/store/distraction-theatre-company.

For further information, go to www.distractiontheatre.org or call (615) 440-1270.