BIASED is an interactive performance that divides the audience into two groups. At the entrance, each audience member chooses between Actor A and Actor B based only on their photographs. According to their choice, they are led to opposite sides of the stage and separated by a wall built from cardboard boxes. Each box bears the name of a different cognitive bias.
Throughout the performance, the performers dismantle the wall, brick by brick, introducing the cognitive biases written on each box. The audience takes part in psychological tests designed to reveal these mental shortcuts, which contribute to prejudice, misinterpretation and other errors in human thinking. As more of the wall disappears, the two groups gradually begin to see one another. By the end of the first part of the performance, the wall has been transformed into the Experimental Ruin Café on stage. The cardboard boxes that once divided the audience now serve as café tables. Around them, the two groups take part in game-like experiments exploring cognitive biases in their own lives. See a 7-minute documentation of the performance here.
The performance was created by Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, Tellervo Kalleinen, director and dramaturg Anna-Mari Karvonen, actor Matija Kezele and musician Fred Nevché. Part of the work group were the actors Yasmin Ahsanullah and Niina Sillanpää. The light and space design was made by Milla Martikainen. It was produced as part of Espoo Theatre & ’s contribution to the Centriphery project, funded by Creative Europe. BIASED premiered at Espoo Theatre & in 2022 and later toured Finnish schools.
Photo by Darina Rodionova