AROUND THE SNAKE TURN to Make DC Area Premiere

Pipeline Playwrights will present the DC-area premiere of "Around the Snake Turn," written by Patricia Connelly and directed by Rikki Howie Lacewell. The play continues the theater collaborative's commitment to amplifying bold, socially engaged stories by women playwrights.

"Around the Snake Turn" is a tense drama set in the Upper Volta region of West Africa. When Kwame and Baaba's son is accused of a crime, a local fetish priest places a devastating curse on their extended family, one that can only be lifted through atonement: the offering of a young virgin girl as a trokosi, or "wife of the gods." In reality, the role condemns the girl to a life of sexual servitude and slavery. As the threat turns toward her own daughter, Baaba refuses to accept the fate imposed upon her family and challenges the accusation. She confronts the power of extended family, tradition, and religion in a fight to protect her child.

"I have been living with this play for more than a decade," said playwright Patricia Connelly, whose work has been seen locally at the Capital Fringe Festival, The Kennedy Center Page-to-Stage Festival, the Women's Voices Theater Festival in Washington, D.C., and at Joe's. "I saw a story about a seven-year-old girl trapped in the trokosi system and began to research it. I felt moved to bear witness. I have written about girls being abused in Catholic schools, about a woman unknowingly forced to carry a suicide bomb by her fiancé, and about female genital mutilation in the United States. My hope is that I have helped lift up the voices and stories of some of the fierce women who are resisting the myriad ways men exploit and control women and their bodies."

The play's director, Rikki Howie Lacewell, also has a passion for supporting women's voices and stories that center on people and experiences that often go unheard.

"I'm drawn to storytelling that makes an audience think and feel, even when it's uncomfortable," she explained. "This play does exactly that. The conversations we're still having as a cast go beyond memorizing lines and putting on a show. We're really living with these characters and wrestling with how they connect, clash, challenge traditions, and challenge each other's beliefs."

Howie Lacewell has previously directed two other plays for Pipeline Playwrights: "Wednesdays in Mississippi" by Nicole Burton, about female civil rights activists in the 1960s, and "It's My Party!" by Ann Timmons, about U.S. suffragists in the early 20th century.

Howie Lacewell and Connelly both view this production as timely.

"We have been learning more about Jeffrey Epstein and this global network of wealthy, powerful men who bought and trafficked young women for sex," noted Connelly. "The play is set in contemporary Africa, but women having to fight to protect themselves and their children from sexual violence, abuse, and trafficking is universal."

For her part, Howie Lacewell hopes the play draws a wide audience.

"In the climate we're living in right now, theater has always been a place of escape, reflection, and conversation," she said. "While this play touches on topics people don't always talk about openly, at its core it's about truth, trust, tradition, and trials."

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