Sexual assault has been a central topic for plays/tv shows/movies for many years and is considered very much a 'powder keg' issue. However, Adams takes this issue very cleverly from a new perspective. Reading the very real characters she creates as they talk about their lives and facing what can be one of the worst things for a family to go through brings this pice to a whole different level. For me, I could hear the characters as they talked and could feel for them. That, for me is something that makes great theatre!

RATTLER, about a support group for women whose family members have been accused of sexual assault, is a gripping and highly theatrical journey. In Lindsay Adams’ vision of this healing circle, the perpetrators are presumed to be innocent, with little dissent. Until there is. I couldn’t guess what was coming next, and its unexpected angle — that your son might be a perpetrator — is a fresh approach in a widening collection of plays about American sexual assault epidemic. Also loved that it revels in a highly theatrical time/space: a meeting room keeps morphing into different locations, keeping momentum going.

Challenging, though-provoking, and disturbing, "Rattler" takes an incisive look at a rape culture narrative we often miss: The mothers of the perpetrators. Jen's journey in realizing the darkness her Golden Boy child is capable of is compelling, and her character is complex and well-drawn. However, what really puts the audience between sympathy and disgust is the other women Jen meets in the play, who extol the virtues of the men in their lives regardless of their crimes. "Rattler" may make you uncomfortable, but it will also make you rethink a necessary conversation America has been having.