Theater Mirror, mirror on the wall: audience as experimental collective
Imitation is the measure of all things: documentary theater specialist Stefan Kaegi from Rimini Protokoll has teamed up with choreographer Sasha Waltz for the artistic realization of the neuroscientific phenomenon of mirror neurons.
22.11.2025, 12:19
22.11.2025, 14:54
SDA
When has that ever happened? A curtain in the riding hall of the Kaserne Basel conceals what is behind it. But when it opens, you realize that there is no behind it. The 400 or so spectators in the sold-out grandstand are looking at a mirrored wall, i.e. at themselves.
And they are looking at everyone else in the stands. One begins to scratch his forehead, another brushes her hair out of her face. It's what you might have wanted to do yourself, but perhaps didn't dare to do when everyone was watching. Until others imitate the gestures and you relieve yourself of the growing itch.
It's about "mirror neurons", as the title says. This refers to a neuroscientific phenomenon that causes people to unconsciously imitate the actions of others. We all know that a smile or a yawn can be contagious. But how far does this go?
Animated movement patterns
This is what the documentary dance theater wants to explore with the audience as a test group. Dance theater because dancers from the renowned troupe Sasha Walz & Guest are spread out in the audience, serving as animators of far-reaching gesture and movement patterns.
To the hypnotic sound of Tobias Koch and supported by audio recordings from scientists, the audience actually begins to develop into a moving body - with some stoically motionless and therefore all the more striking individual masks in the mirror image, while others are clearly behaving beyond an imagined mirror neuron effect.
Relying on the community experience
Those responsible for the project also seem to have been aware that the unconscious imitation effect alone cannot be sustained for a full-length performance. That's why they focused on the community experience with a children's birthday party game with balloons, a collective dance animation and a karaoke chorus to Radiohead's hit "Creep" - a song about the fear of confronting a desirable person.
At the end, it feels more like a vacation club animation program than a documentary theater experiment about a neuroscientific phenomenon. As we heard in conversations after the premiere, some members of the audience did not feel stimulated by mirror neurons, but took part so as not to be recognized as spoilsports in the mirror - which can also be a bit of fun.
"Spiegelneuronen" by Stefan Kaegi and Sahsha Waltz & Guest can be seen once again at the Kaserne Basel on Saturday and will be performed at Théâtre Vidy in Lausanne from November 27 to 30.
