Opening Skinner’s Box
Opening Night: July 10, 2017
Closing: July 12, 2017
Theater: Gerald W. Lynch
Why do we love? When would we kill? How do we learn? Why do we believe in the unbelievable? With their trademark mix of wit, insight, and inventive stagecraft, Britain’s Improbable theater company takes us on a “fascinating, if at times alarming” (Times, U.K.) tour of ten famous 20th-century psychological experiments, starting with B.F. Skinner’s notorious rat boxes. Inspired by Lauren Slater’s acclaimed book, Opening Skinner’s Box is a time-traveling dialogue with the audacious scientists who set out to unlock the secrets of human behavior. Amidst ethically questionable methods, shocking results, and blinding biases, one thing becomes abundantly clear: Everything we thought we knew about ourselves is wrong.
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July 11, 2017
There are six eager performers in “Opening Skinner’s Box,” part of the Lincoln Center Festival, which begins this week. And their industriousness in the service of science and theater is not to be denied. During this whimsically informative overview of psychological experimentation in the 20th century, they dutifully transform themselves into drug-addicted rats, maternally challenged monkeys, lobotomy recipients and miffed psychologists. They also explain concepts like cognitive dissonance and negative reinforcement with that demonstrative gusto often found in beloved middle school teachers.
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