Genre
Drama
Runtime
1 HOUR 50 MINUTES
INTERMISSION
NONE
Genre
Drama
Runtime
1 HOUR 50 MINUTES
INTERMISSION
NONE
Complicite’s THE ENCOUNTER is “one of the most immersive theater pieces ever created.” (New York Times) Directed and performed by Simon McBurney, this solo performance traces a journey into the depths of the Amazon rainforest, using 3D audio technology to build an intimate and shifting world of sound.
Inspired by the book Amazon Beaming by Petru Popescu, THE ENCOUNTER follows National Geographic photographer Loren McIntyre as he finds himself lost in a remote area of Brazil in 1969, which leads to a startling encounter that is to change his life. Each seat comes equipped with a pair of headphones. Put them on and experience ground-breaking sound design - plugging into the power of the imagination, and engaging you in new and breathtaking ways as McBurney leads you on an epic journey.
As McIntyre’s mesmerising tale reaches its climax, this extraordinary performance asks some of the most urgent questions of today: about how we live and what we believe to be true.
THE ENCOUNTER
Complicite’s THE ENCOUNTER premiered in 2015 at the Edinburgh International Festival before its sold-out success at London’s Barbican in February of this year followed by a European tour. After that critical success, it opened to raves yet again on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre on Thursday, September 29.
“THE ENCOUNTER is about an epic journey, and I can’t think of a better place to celebrate this journey than with our curious and innovative Curran audiences.” -Carole Shorenstein Hays
Complicite / Simon McBurney
HEARING IMPAIRED CUSTOMERS
The Encounter is experienced through headphones and heavily incorporates a stunning sound design. If you are a hearing aid user please bring along your direct input cable for use during the performance and make yourself known at Box Office upon arrival so that our technicians can talk you through how best to experience the show. If you don’t have a direct input cable please contact us with your requirements and the seats you have booked. On the day of the performance please make yourself known at the Box Office and we will adapt the equipment accordingly.
Join us immediately following select performances to participate.
Tuesday, May 2: Sound technology can be used in many ways to create art and have an impact. Hear from Complicite’s sound board operator, as well as Gray Area’s Director of Education, Matt Ganucheau, about how they use sound to engage their audiences.
Thursday, May 4: Explore group consciousness through personal curiosity, in this conversation with Simon McBurney and Radiolab co-founder and MacArthur Fellow, Jad Abumrad.
POST-SHOW CONVERSATIONS
Press
Creatives
Simon McBurney
SIMON McBURNEY (Director, Performer) is a multi-Olivier Award-winning, Tony® and SAG Award-nominated actor, writer, director and one of Europe’s most original theater makers. He is co-founder and artistic director of Complicite, “...Britain’s most innovative theatre company” (New Statesman). His work from site-specific installations, to Opera, new writing and the re-imagining of classic texts, continuously resists definition. In New York: Mnemonic (written, directed and performed), All My Sons, The Chairs (Broadway), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui with Al Pacino and at Lincoln Center The Noise of Time with The Emerson String Quartet. Productions presented at Lincoln Center Festival include: Shun-kin, A Disappearing Number, The Elephant Vanishes, The Street of Crocodiles and The Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol. Recent work with Complicite includes adaptations of Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig and Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, as well as Shakespeare's Measure for Measure and Mozart's The Magic Flute. He is a prolific film, television and radio actor starring many major movies including: The Theory of Everything, Magic in the Moonlight, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, The Last King of Scotland and recently released The Conjuring 2 andMission: Impossible - Rogue Nation.
PETRU POPESCU
PETRU POPESCU (Inspired By) is Romania’s best known novelist. In his homeland, he wrote mordant anti-communist prose that put him in direct conflict with dictator Ceaușescu. When invited to the International Writers’ Workshop of the University of Iowa, Popescu defected to the West. He has traveled extensively, including to Amazonia, where he met Loren McIntyre, who shared his life story with the writer. Mesmerized by Loren’ s accounts of being kidnapped by elusive tribes and of discovering the source of the giant river, Popescu wrote The Encounter: Amazon Beaming. He followed it with The New York Times bestsellers Almost Adam and The Oasis. Popescu lives in California and is currently working on a new novel.
KIRSTY HOUSLEY
KIRSTY HOUSLEY (Co-Director) is an award-winning theatre director, writer and dramaturge. Kirsty has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, the Young Vic, the Lowry, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Northern Stage and Live Theatre, Newcastle. She is currently collaborating with the RSC, Bryony Kimmings, the Unicorn and the Bush Theatre. She is a recipient of an Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award and the Title Pending Award at Northern Stage.
MICHAEL LEVINE
MICHAEL LEVINE (Design) is a Canadian designer whose work has appeared on stages around the world. He has won the Edinburgh Festival Drama Award and the Paris Critics Prize, and he is a French Chevalier des Arts et Lettres. Recent work: Le Petit Prince, National Ballet of Canada; Benjamin, Derniere Nuit, Lyon Opera; Hansel and Gretel, Nederlandse Opera; Wozzeck, Zurich Opera; Between Worlds, ENO; A Dog’ s Heart, Nederlandse/La Scala/ENO; and Madam Butterfly, ENO/Metropolitan Opera.
GARETH FRY
GARETH FRY (Sound) is best known for creating work with leading UK theatre directors such as Simon McBurney, John Tiffany, Sacha Wares and Katie Mitchell. Credits include Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (West End), Let the Right One In (West End), Black Watch (St. Ann’s Warehouse), Waves and another 20 productions for the National Theatre. Exhibitions include David Bowie Is at the V&A. He also created the soundscape for the opening ceremony at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
PETE MALKIN
PETE MALKIN (Sound) is a sound designer for theatre and a graduate of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Recent work includes Beware of Pity (Complicite, Schaubühne), The Tempest (Donmar Warehouse), Andrea Chenier (Opera North), Am I Dead Yet (Unlimited Theatre), The Noise (Unlimited Theatre), SUN (National Art Service), Space Junk (Lyric Hammersmith), Farragut North (West End). Associate: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, 1984 (Headlong), Lionboy (Complicite), Hamlet (RSC).
PAUL ANDERSON
PAUL ANDERSON (Lighting). Productions include All My Sons and The Chairs (Broadway), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (National Actors Theatre New York with Al Pacino), The Master and Margarita (Olivier Award nomination), Shun-kin, A Disappearing Number, Strange Poetry (with the L.A. Philharmonic), The Elephant Vanishes, Light, The Noise of Time, Mnemonic (Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Award), The Chairs (nominated for Tony, Drama Desk and Olivier awards), all for Complicite. Numerous productions for the National Theatre, the RSC and London’s West End.
WILL DUKE
WILL DUKE (Projection) studied Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Fine Art and Drawing and at the Glasgow School of Art. Recent credits include Kommillitonen! (Welsh National Youth Opera); Opera for the Unknown Woman; Benjamin, Derniere Nuit (Lyon Opera); Beware of Pity (Complicite, Schaubühne); Queen Anne (RSC).
JEMIMA JAMES
JEMIMA JAMES (Associate Director) trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Recent directing credits include this is not a drill (Tristan Bates), Project Derby (Queer Show & Tell, Hackney Showrooms), Peep (Collaborations Festival, Dublin) and Festen (Royal Central School of Speech and Drama).