What is the Butt Game?

In 1989, when playwright Savannah Reich was three years old, her daycare was shut down by the Child Protection Agency under suspicion of child abuse. The primary investigator was particularly interested in something a child called “the butt game”, and interviewed many of the kids and parents to try to find out how it was played. This investigation was part of the Satanic Panic; a fear sweeping the nation over the idea of Satan-worshipping sex cults that loved to abuse and ritually murder toddlers. All these accusations later proved false, but in the late 1980s, police and social workers were sure that Satanic cults were operating right under their noses. After Savannah’s daycare was shut down, the parents stayed in touch; trading kids back and forth for sleepovers, hosting barbecues in the summer, and camping together on the shores of Lake Michigan. The accusation of Satanic abuse was the very thing that brought the group closer and made them into a chosen family.

With the help of her collaborator Connor Hogan and an ensemble of local actors, Savannah attempts to answer the question: why did CPS see danger where Savannah saw love and community? How much of truth is objective? And what actually was the butt game?