AWARDS: Finalist, 2019 Woodward/Newman Drama Award (Bloomington Playwrights Project); Selection, 2018 National Winter Playwrights Retreat (HBMG Foundation); 2017 Finalist & 2018 Semi-Finalist, National Playwrights Conference (Eugene O'Neill Theater Center).
In a near-forgotten corner of the Suzhou Zoo in China, the last male and female Yangtze giant softshell turtles unknowingly find themselves in the spotlight when suddenly thrust into confinement by a team of scientists, who are prepared to rewrite the laws of science to get the Turtles to breed and the species to perpetuate. But when the lovestruck Turtles finally grasp the full implications of their circumstances, the line between responsibility and self-preservation starts to blur… In the animal kingdom, held in captivity in a race against the biological clock, at what point does nature’s instinct finally overpower free will? In RAFETUS, “freedom of choice” takes on a whole new meaning -- or perhaps is rendered meaningless.