Displaying items by tag: Gala Gaonkar

At this stage of his career, David Byrne’s name alone fills concert halls and theaters.  The “singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, actor, writer, music theorist, visual artist and filmmaker” is best known for his affiliation with the rock band Talking Heads.  It’s likely less known that he’s also been awarded both an Oscar and a Tony for the uniqueness of his creative perceptions in other artistic spheres.

Byrne’s latest project involves very little music and instead explores the complex nuances of the human mind; a relatively new area of interest for him and one that’s been consuming large amounts of his attention.  Created in conjunction with his spouse, businesswoman and entrepreneur Gala Gaonkar, Theater of the Mind is the imaginative byproduct of that fascination.  Debuting as one of the productions celebrating the Goodman Theatre’s centennial anniversary late last year, the show, directed by Andrew Scoville, opened in the Spring of ’26 and has been sustaining a very strong appeal ever since.

Byrne calls the production “an immersive Science Theater project” that peers into a rarely opened door.   Behind it are valuable clues into how pliable our perceptions of experiences and memories can be over both long and short periods of time.  That malleability extends to our perceptions of ourselves.  What we think of our own identity can change over time or in an instant.  Byrne and Gaonkar’s science driven theatrical effort actively prods and plays with those concepts by creating an environment where they can be tested and validated in real time by ordinary people. 

Photos by Todd Rosenberg.

It’s a highly sophisticated time sensitive endeavor that on the surface looks smooth and meticulously organized.  Continuously running multiple shows from 5:00 to 8:30pm, reservations are available at 15-minute intervals.  This allows the staggering of several 75-minute shows over the time span.  It’s not unusual for ticketholders with different reservation times to be grouped together for the same performance.  Every show features a central character named David who acts as both the central subject of the show and the guide who walks you through the arch of his life.

Because shows run concurrently, the cast is comprised of several Davids whose talent base is periodically refreshed as it was recently.

Unlike most immersive theatrical performances that remove the fourth wall by bringing audience members onto the stage as silent observers, Theater of the Mind requires a multi-tiered investment.  First you’re asked, and given the means, to shed and then replace your identity.  Perhaps even more importantly, you’ll periodically be asked to do very specific things.  All of them are best accomplished if you relax the automatic inhibitions most of us have when we find ourselves among strangers.  Theater of the Mind is a different environment.  Relinquishing yourself to the moment will generate the most gratifying outcomes.  None of the requests are unusual or difficult and all of them end with an unexpected revelation. 

Chicago audience members experienceTheater of Mind, David Byrne and Mala Gaonkar’sone-of-a-kind immersive theater experience, directed by Andrew Scoville, produced as part of Goodman Theatre’s Centennial 100th Anniversary season.

Some suggest this type of theatrical effort might not be for everyone.  Because the project upends convention so thoroughly, many who attend a performance have little idea of what to expect and may unconsciously create their own assumptions about what’s in store.  Blocking those impulses and homing in on mindful receptivity proves an asset in a venture like this.  It ensures the wealth of interesting and often stimulatingly provocative information David shares and reenforces is received and processed easily and deeply.

Shortly after we meet him, we notice inconsistencies between what he tells us about himself and what we see.  As he continues to share key facts about himself, he intentionally highlights the vulnerability of our perceptions by casually and methodically conducting experiments that make us question whether what we’re seeing is real or a mental deception.  His first simple demonstration prepares our minds for more examples that will call into question the viability of the reality we’re experiencing.  That theme gets expanded as we follow David from rooms that look like places where experiments happen to rooms that could be in a domestic dwelling.  Others simulate outdoor spaces or even discos. 

These spaces make up David’s “memory palace” and strong links are always provided that tie them together.  And in all of them we’re given opportunities to reexamine our own past experiences, assumptions and even convictions about the past and ourselves just as he reassesses his.  Thrown in are exercises that challenge our perception of the natural world and our ability to adapt to it.

As our guide, David uses his own life to show how our relationships with others are susceptible to misreadings. Whether it’s near the beginning, in the middle or approaching the end, where we are in life often plays a key role in determining how we see and understand the world around us as well as the people in it.  Among the many subtly brilliant feats Theater of the Mind accomplishes is the ability to time travel and return to periods in David’s childhood that take on a completely different tenor from the vantage point of maturity. 

Through their thoughtfully imaginative only-in-Chicago project, Byrne and Gaonkar have discovered a way to expand our appreciation of and respect for the mind’s capabilities.  They’ve also provided valuable lessons on how its perceptions can be skewed by either physical or psychological influences.  Both things leave us better prepared to weigh our judgments and opinions with equanimity.

Theater of the Mind

Extended to January 3, 2027

Reid Murdoch Building at 333 N. LaSalle Street

Chicago, IL  60610

For more information and tickets:  https://my.goodmantheatre.org/19246/19834