Experience “Theater of the Mind”

By Wes Hessel with Flo Mano

Goodman Theater’s 100th season expands beyond their brick and mortar home to the landmark Reid Murdoch building with the immersive production of “Theater of the Mind”, created by David Byrne and Mala Gaonkar, directed by Andrew Scolville. Groups of 16 people at a time are escorted in punctual 15 minute intervals by a guide to a room, and are then given instructions to pick an envelope with a name of who we’d be – I became “Meera”. We then entered to explore and participate in each of the various themed rooms with “David”, the main character. He referred to me as “the best dancer he ever met” in the disco room, where our taste buds were also tested.

David takes us down a mind bending memory lane of his life and experiences, encouraging us to use all our senses. This puts front and center the memory validity of our recollections to question. It uses art, science, VR, oversized furniture, and distortion perception glasses at the birthday party game. I was like a kid at the candy store taking down details in my memory bank, wanting to experience it with “all” the “David”’s; it is a mind-boggling, fun, eccentric, not-to-be-missed adventure. “Theater of the Mind” has been extended to July 12th, but the likely rampant popularity of this multi-sensory encounter means you should go today to www.goodmantheatre.org/tickets. 

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