tell the truth and shame the devil

zoe | juniper and Xiu Xiu started collaborating in 2023, sending rehearsal videos and music tracks back and forth from LA and Berlin. After a couple of residencies at The Moore Theatre in Seattle, zj and Xiu Xiu premiered tell the truth and shame the devil in May 2025!

In tell the truth and shame the devil, zoe | juniper and Xiu Xiu examine The Crucible, psychological thrillers, Jordan Peele’s horror films, and the backlash against the MeToo movement all as a lens for dissecting the pervasiveness of misogyny and the insidious virus of patriarchy. .

World premiere commissioned by Seattle Theatre Group.

COLLABORATORS

Created and Choreographed by Zoe Scofield

Original music by Xiu Xiu

Directed by Zoe Scofield with Mikhaela Mahony

Video by Juniper Shuey

Lighting Design by Ryan Dunn

Set Design by Jennifer Zeyl

Dramaturgy by Mikhaela Mahony & Dahlak Brathwaite

Produced by Lilach Orenstein

Masks by Joe Seely

Props by Rebecca A Gessert and Sylvia Cziglenyi

Costumes by Kaye Voyce

Text by Dahlak Brathwaite

Performance by Mandolin Burns, Aden Hurst, Caitlin Javech, Melody Morrow and Sydney Donovan with Jamie Stewart and Hyunhye (Angela) Seo

Understudies Giordana Falzone and Dawson Walker

Production Assistance by Emma Lawes

Administrative Assistance by Neva Guido

Photos by Anton Karraa

“ Transforming pain into art requires a special kind of alchemy. Dancer-choreographer Zoe Scofield is an alchemist. (The) hybrid-dance work “tell the truth and shame the devil,” a tumultuous time in Scofield’s life becomes an unnerving performance. During a recent rehearsal, sometimes the dancers bore the weight of a life-size puppet’s lumpy, flaccid body. Sometimes they left the puppets behind entirely. Sometimes they straddled a puppet before removing and then donning its oversized papier-mâché-looking head themselves, assuming a visage that is somehow both neutral and grotesque. The effect is unsettling, as it should be.

Gemma Wilson, The Seattle Times
Read the full article here.
“... it’s about the patriarchal system they operate within. As she continued to try and make sense of the disorienting experience, she found herself looking at the whole event through the lens of patriarchy. … The point of the piece is extraordinarily complicated, socially and politically, which is right up our alley,’ said Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu. Xiu Xiu’s soundscape endeavors “to follow and support the emotionality of the subject matter, which is devastating, depressing and very intense,” said Stewart, explaining that the score includes elements of experimental music and noise; darker, post-punk synth pop; improvised free jazz noise; and “very spacious, kind of mid- 20th-century modern classical music. … There’s nothing relaxing or relenting about the dance piece, and we’re trying to reflect that musically,” he said."

Gemma Wilson, The Seattle Times
Read the full article here.