David Byrne is turning a chunk of River North into a full-on mind game, parking his immersive “Theater of the Mind” inside the Reid Murdoch Building in a 15,000-square-foot sensory playground that opens March 11 and runs through May 31, 2026. The show moves tiny cohorts of just 16 people per performance through a roughly 75-minute sequence of rooms that quietly pokes at the idea that memory and identity are rock solid. You get a new name at the door, you are led by a single guide playing “David,” a character loosely inspired by Byrne himself, and you leave wondering how much of what you just experienced your brain has already rewritten. Tickets start at about $66, making this head trip a relatively accessible, if deliberately intimate, entry on River North’s spring calendar.
The Goodman Theatre is presenting Theater of the Mind as part of its centennial season and has carved out a ground-floor space in the historic Reid Murdoch Building specifically for the installation. According to Goodman Theatre, the production occupies roughly 15,000 square feet, runs March 11 through May 31, 2026, and stages 75-minute performances for groups of 16 with no intermission.
The piece is co-created by Byrne and writer Mala Gaonkar and staged by director Andrew Scoville. During a press walk-through, Byrne explained that audience members are given new name tags, often mismatched to their gender or background, to unsettle their sense of self before the show even properly begins. Mike Davis’s preview in the Chicago Sun-Times lingers on the guide’s outfit, seersucker with shorts and socks with sandals, and describes a story that runs backward in time and leans on memory as an unreliable witness. The Sun-Times also notes that several of the piece’s big ideas are directly inspired by scientific research into perception and memory.
How the show uses perception research
Byrne and his collaborators say they pulled from neuroscience experiments, and from immersive shows and exhibits Byrne has checked out, including a VR-driven “Being Barbie” project, to build rooms that play with lighting, sound and spatial layout in order to nudge the way visitors remember events. In a preview report, WBEZ notes that the creative team handed out a brief packet of scientific context to press and stressed that the experience is designed to be participatory rather than a neuroscience lecture dressed up with cool effects.
Tickets, timing and what to expect
Tickets are currently listed from roughly $66 up to about $96 depending on the date, and Time Out reports that performances begin every 15 minutes, which lets those staggered 16-person groups cycle through while keeping the corridors from feeling like rush hour on the Red Line.
The production’s visitor information notes that there is no late admittance and recommends that audiences be at least 12 years old, a reminder that this is more psychological fun house than kids museum. For the latest schedule details and information on accessibility, visitors are directed to the official Theater of the Mind site.
What this means for Chicago
The Goodman has framed Theater of the Mind as a way to push its centennial season beyond its familiar stages and to pull more people into River North, a strategy local arts commentators say could boost foot traffic and attention for downtown venues. As Axios points out, the project also fits neatly into a broader wave of immersive experiences moving into nontraditional downtown real estate.
Press previews on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, found parts of the maze-like space still under construction, but reviewers said the finished rooms already suggested something playful, a little unsettling and very much in line with Byrne’s long-running fascination with how we see and misremember the world. If the Goodman’s gamble pays off, Theater of the Mind could end up as one of Chicago’s most talked-about art events this spring.
