Directed & performed by
Simon McBurney
Co-director
Kirsty Housley
Associate director
Jemima James
Design
Michael Levine
Sound
Gareth Fry with Pete Malkin
Lighting
Paul Anderson
Projection
Will Duke
Inspired by the book Amazon Beaming by Petru Popescu.
In 1969 Loren McIntyre, a National Geographic photographer, found himself lost among the people of the remote Javari Valley in Brazil. It was an encounter that was to change his life, bringing the limits of human consciousness into startling focus.
Simon McBurney traces McIntyre's journey into the depths of the Amazon rainforest, incorporating innovative technology into his solo performance to build a shifting world of sound.
A Complicité co-production with Edinburgh International Festival, the Barbican, London, Onassis Cultural Centre – Athens, Schaubühne Berlin, Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne and Warwick Arts Centre. Live stream supported by The Space.
Age guidance 12+
Watch an online discussion with Simon McBurney and guests recorded on Wednesday 20 May: watch on Facebook
“We are, as a consequence of this pandemic, bodily cut off from one another. Disconnected. Isolated. But perhaps this sense of our separation one from another, is simply a heightening of what we felt before this all began. We are thinking now, not only about how long this will last, but also what happens on the other side. To reconnect we need, perhaps, to learn to listen more closely. To each other. To our communities. To other cultures. To nature itself.
The Encounter is at its heart a story about ‘listening’, not 'hearing' but listening; to other, older narratives which, at the deepest level, form who we are, and if we do, we can imagine how we can 'begin' again.”
Simon McBurney
Visit our resource website for more information on the making of The Encounter.
Tour
2018 Tour
Odeon Théâtre de l'Europe, Paris
29 March - 8 April 2018
Barbican, London
14 April – 5 May 2018
DeSingel, Antwerp
9 - 12 May 2018
Schaubühne, Berlin
17 – 20 May 2018
Golden Mask Festival, Moscow
25 – 27 May 2018
2017 Tour
The Curran, San Francisco
25 April - 7 May 2017
Wallis Annenberg, Los Angeles
6 - 16 April 2017
Ann Arbor, Michigan
30 March - 1 April 2017
Auckland Arts Festival
(performed by Richard Katz)
15 - 19 March 2017
Adelaide Festival
(performed by Richard Katz)
7 - 11 March 2017
Perth International Arts Festival
(performed by Richard Katz)
16 - 25 February 2017
Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne
(performed by Richard Katz)
2 - 10 February 2017
Sydney Festival
(performed by Richard Katz)
18 - 28 January 2017
2016 Tour
Broadway - John Golden Theatre
20 Sept 2016 - 8 Jan 2017
Les Nuit de Fourviere, Lyon
23 - 25 June 2016
Printemps Des Comediens, Montpellier
16 - 18 June 2016
Holland Festival, Amsterdam
9 - 12 June 2016
Wiener Festwochen, Vienna
2 - 5 June 2016
Oxford Playhouse
25 - 28 May 2016
Brighton Festival
11 - 15 May 2016
Manchester HOME
16 - 19 March 2016
Athens The Onassis Cultural Centre
1 - 3 April 2016
Live stream online
1 - 8 March 2016
London Barbican
12 February - 6 March 2016
2015 Tour
Warwick Arts Centre
10 - 11 October 2015
Bristol Old Vic
18 - 20 September 2015
Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne
8 - 12 September 2015
Edinburgh International Festival
8 - 23 August 2015
Awards
2015
Herald Angel Award (Simon McBurney)
2016
The Evening Standard Award for Best Design (Gareth Fry & Pete Malkin)
The Knights of Illumination Award for Best Projection (Will Duke)
2017
Stage Award for Innovation
2017 Special Tony Award for Sound Design (Gareth Fry & Pete Malkin)
Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Solo Performance (Simon McBurney)
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Sound Design in a Play (Gareth Fry & Pete Malkin)
The Helpmann Award for Best Sound Design (Gareth Fry & Pete Malkin)
2021
Off West End OnComm Award for The Encounter online, Recorded Shows / Pre-Covid19 Lockdown Recording / Significant Edits
- Figures in Extinction [1.0]
- The Dark is Rising
- Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
- Can I Live? filmed performance
- The Last of the Pelican Daughters
- I'll Take You to Mrs Cole!
- everything that rises must dance
- Grief is the Thing with Feathers
- The Rake's Progress
- A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer
- Beware of Pity
- The Encounter
- Lionboy
- The Master and Margarita
- The Magic Flute
- A Dog's Heart
- Endgame
- Shun-kin
- A Disappearing Number
- Vanishing Points
- Strange Poetry
- Measure for Measure
- Pet Shop Boys Meet Eisenstein
- The Elephant Vanishes
- Light
- The Noise of Time
- The Vertical Line
- Mnemonic
- The Caucasian Chalk Circle
- To The Wedding
- The Chairs
- Foe
- Out of a house walked a man...
- The Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol
- The Winter's Tale
- The Street of Crocodiles
- Help! I'm Alive
- My Army Parts I and II
- The Visit
- Ave Maria
- The Phantom Violin
- Burning Ambition
- Anything For A Quiet Life
- Please, Please, Please
- Food Stuff
- More Bigger Snacks Now
- A Minute Too Late
- Put It On Your Head