According to a number of sources, David Byrne is coming up with a new, collaborative stage production between himself and his friend Mala Gaonkar, who is a neuroscientist. It debuts in Denver this summer on August 31 before wrapping on December 18, 2022.
In his typical style, Byrne announced that the “side effects may include a distrust of your own senses, a disorientation of self, and a mild to a severely good time.”
The PR statement also said that the installation will “take audience members through an immersive journey of self-reflection, discovery, and imagination, inspired by and grounded in neuroscience.” It goes on to describe it as “a visceral theatre experience inspired by neuroscientist experiments”.
Attendees will be participants in sensory experiments intended to “reveal the inner mysteries of the brain”, rather than audience members.
Gaonkar and Bryne said the installation is based on scientific experiments and research with scientists and will make those attending question their realities.
Theater Of The Mind will see groups of 16 enter the exhibition show with a guide. The exhibition will “[use] stories from our own lives to shape a narrative you’ll see, feel, taste and hear,” according to organizers, meaning each of the experiences will be different as they are informed by guests’ individual experiences.
The result, according to organizers, will be that those who attend will “question how beliefs, memories and even our identities are less fixed than we think.”
