Excerpts from scenes 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 of the performance of The Reptile Under the Flowers (2011, Los Angeles) Conceived, directed, designed by Janie Geiser Music by Valerie Opielski A production of Automata These scenes are performed continuously as loops as the audience walks from scene to scene. The Reptile Under the Flowers is a peepshow/diorama performance in 12 scenes that incorporates puppetry, mechanical performing objects, small projections, music and sound to create a an intimate miniature spectacle. Performed by an ensemble of 15 performers for groups of 8 people at a time, who travel through the diorama-performance. The Reptile Under the Flowers builds its narrative through the accumulation of small actions and events, without text or dialogue, and follows the intersecting lives of a father and son. The Reptile Under the Flowers explores stories of emotional violence in a family, as well as the “sanctioned violence” of war, through puppetry, design, video, and music (Opielski). The father is an embezzler who has just returned from jail (seen in scenes 8--only his feet--and 9—walking and then projected onto his house as a constant presence). The son is a soldier, who finds that he has shot at the wrong house (scene 4), but he is coerced into burying the bodies by his fellow soldier (scene 5). He goes awol (shadow), and finds himself in a forest of memory (scene 6). Later in scenes 10-12, the father and son’s stories converge at their home, where the father paces incessantly, but the son finds that he is too ashamed to return.