Jede Menge Unsterblichkeit

In the organizer's words:

She was black, came from a socially disadvantaged background, had five children and was terminally ill: Henrietta Lacks died of cancer, but parts of her body became immortal. Without her knowledge, researchers removed resistant cancer cells from her body. To this day, these cells exist as HeLa cells in laboratories around the world and continue to be used for research purposes in the search for a cure for cancer.

If Henrietta's cells are still alive, is Henrietta still alive? Is she immortal? What is alive and what is dead? A doll? Cells? An avatar? An AI? Who decides whether someone exists or not: their body, the smell in their apartment or their Instagram account? If a puppet is played that represents Hamlet, does Hamlet exist? Is he immortal? And if there were immortality, who could afford it? Certainly not Henrietta Lacks.

In this special salon evening, MiR Puppentheater and MiR.LAB jointly explore the coexistence of digital and analog bodies. Virtual masks capture the audience's gaze while players merge with digital avatars and reflect on the eternal "to be or not to be" based on the story of the immortal HeLa cells puppets.