Toward the beginning of Scott/Powell's new work, an ethereal green ensemble jumps into and out of an implied space. Resembling waterbugs, they dance and flit among and around each other, but not exactly *with* each other. It appears to be a microcosm of some kind, a busy colony at work. Two parallel panels of light reinforce the feeling that we're peering through a microscope at miniscule life darting around on a slide--their movements both limited and defined by their boundaries.

Welcome to our review blogs for Repeat After Me. Read the reviews below, click on the Comments button to read the comments of others and post your own thoughts.

Repeat after me begins in a vulnerable way. "Can you hear me, is this loud enough?" as the mic check happens at the top of the show, bringing you right into the performance; American dance #1, PBR, pie eating, American tableaux #3, Toby Keith, American flag underwear, sentimental karaoke. The piece satirizes an America that most Seattlites don't experience, but also highlights a patriotism that I began to long for by the end.

I have a really hard time with chaotic theater. It's a rare show that captures my attention and keeps me from engaging my obsessive desires for thematic order and visual clarity. When I watched the 20-minute version of this piece during the NW New Works Festival this past spring, I just did not get it. Yeah, there were times when I laughed out loud, but I wasn't at all certain the work could be stretched into an evening-length performance without also stretching the premise incredibly thin.

It must be said that 'Repeat After Me' is not a rigorous investigation of patriotism or the country culture that produces songs like "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue" and "Where the Stars and Stripes and Eagle Fly." There are some interesting juxtapositions, and the cast does a pretty good job of singing the songs straight and not mocking them (though the recurring stripping down to American flag underwear and same-sex kisses suggests a non-red-state perspective), but this show is more about creating theatrical spectacle than political analysis. And as spectacle, it's entirely enjoyab

Zoe Scofield and Juniper Shuey just finished a music video with Dave Matthews! Be sure to also come see Zoe, Juniper and all their amazing collaborators perform here at OtB in April 2008. Posted by Tania