2014

“Theatre in Your Head” is an experimental performance within the project Performing Misunderstandings. TanzLaboratorium invites people to follow in real time different sets of instructions that they hear in their headphones. That simple following may provide a chance for the risky composition to emerge right on stage.

We are not looking at the phenomenon of misunderstanding as something negative, we think it accompanies everybody practically in every moment of their lives. What seems to be wrong is the desire to overcome misunderstanding, to jump over the gap to the other side where everything is clear and perfect.

In our project we problematize misunderstanding by exploring its various aspects: producing situations of misunderstanding in personal human relations, between members of society, between an individual and society, between “listener” and “speaker”, etc. For us it is critical to explore the possibilities of performance as installation and of perceiving objects as action. We are also interested in researching the perception of the public, who is invited to view the performance not as a product or object of exchange, but as a framing of reality that allows questioning. Our goal in this process is to create situations where misunderstanding can possibly reveal certain mechanisms of perception involved in communication.