The premiere of Pillow Fortress by Aysha Zackria is the first full production from Peregrine Theatre Company, the“emerging-artist-focused” company that launched in summer 2025. (This production is in Arlington, Virginia’s Theatre on the Run) As a playwright, Zackria’s style is humanist with a strong social justice edge, and Pillow Fortress shows how young women can be soft like a feather, playful in a slumber party, and strong like a pepper sprayer, in ways that can support and hurt all at once.
It’s not a “best friend story” like many in the “girlhood plays” genre, since these girls are initially strangers. It’s a story of human nature and learning to exist with others you’re stuck with. The pacing of the first half dragged a bit, as air needed to be cut performance-wise. But the script itself is strong, with well-developed dramatic suspense driven by characters’ bad decision-making and misunderstandings.
To set the scene: Three college girls are working on a group project on queering Virginia Woolf. They get stuck inside when they find out an armed attacker has escaped from jail and is on the lam that night. Obviously, they stop working. At the neurotic Jordan’s insistence, they turn off the lights, cover the windows, and make a pillow fort to hide in. Then, to pass the time, slumber party antics ensue.
Each student tells a scary story in the dark with a flashlight (all three stories are linked to traumas that eventually tie into the unfolding conflict). Between it all, it’s revealed that Chelsea’s mother is a cop, which takes Ry, a Black woman, off guard. A charged game of truth or dare leads to a pillow fight, where Chelsea is accidentally knocked out. Ry and Jordan, left alone, begin to recognize their feelings for each other, get high, and pull a prank on Chelsea: writing “ACAB” in Sharpie on her forehead.
The play shines most in its third act. It’s difficult to witness in the best way as Ry makes Jordan cover for her twice, while chastising her for cooperating with the police. By the end, audiences might wonder: in a world with so much fear, how can you be both strong and soft? What do you do to protect yourself and stay safe? Can we do so in solidarity, or do we become selfish? How do we treat each other? How do we save each other and have each other’s backs? Who’s innocent and who’s harming others?
Sia Li Wright’s portrayal of Ry’s anxiety is beautiful to see. Her fear of the cops comes off as legitimate, but she is also stuck in her ways and doesn’t consider the full humanity of those around her. It’s not black and white, but it’s what she believes is right, because the trauma is deep-seated. It’s great to see this actor in such a realist role after seeing her work in the classics and Brecht last year.
Sommer Schaap gives a wonderfully nuanced take on the character of Jordan. Her performance carries the weight of this play, grounding it with reality. Jordan’s fear leads her to try to survive and be in control. She knows how to sweet-talk herself out of bad situations, even if it involves getting involved with the cops.
As Chelsea, Camille Pivetta is cool and chill, yet also the cop-apologetic one. Her heightened asshole energy was a bit jarring compared with the other two more naturalistic performers. But as drama ensues, she’s “just a girl” who wants her mom and not to get in trouble. She does spend a lot of time knocked out on the couch; perhaps staging in which you don’t have to see her sleeping could have been considered. As her mom, Kim, Nadine Pineda provides sincerity and severity as she searches for her daughter, anchoring the conflict.
For a play done in an intimate DIY style, akin to the spirit of the many existing small indie theaters in the DMV area — in a black box with a minimalist yet realistic set evoking a college girl’s apartment with posters galore (Dom Ocampo) and everyday costumes (Olivia Levin) — it was well produced, performed, and written. The play could certainly benefit from future productions at venues like District Fringe to further its development. But you’re missing out if you don’t experience this new work. These spaces for burgeoning young artists to create professionally and call the shots are vital, and the region should be watching Peregrine, one of several new companies emerging this year, do so.
Running Time: 90 minutes, no intermission.
Pillow Fortress plays through March 22, 2026, presented by Peregrine Theatre Company, performing at Theatre on the Run, 3700 S Four Mile Run Drive, Arlington, VA. Purchase tickets ($26.90-$37.25) online.
The program is available online.
Pillow Fortress
By Aysha Zackria
CAST
Ry: Sia Li Wright
Chelsea: Camille Pivetta
Jordan: Sommer Schaap
Kim: Nadine Pivetta
PRODUCTION TEAM
Director: Jaida Gillespie
Stage Manager: Megan Hanna
Production Manager: Marcus L. Maia
Dramaturg: Fatima Dyfan
Sound Designer: Hannah Chester
Costume Designer: Olivia Levin
Scenic and Props Designer: Dom Ocampo
Lighting Designer: E. Lieu Wolhardt
Associate Lighting Designer and Board Operator: Alexis Morrison
Associate Sound Designer: Mikayla White
Fight Choreographer: Nate Huff
Intimacy Consultant: Kwezi Shongwe
House Manager: Emma Magner
Front of House Team: Erica Bass, Amelia Emory, Nate Huff
Co-Producers: Erica Bass and Nate Huff
