Whether at the theatre, the opera, or the cinema, Simon McBurney’s work is always received with much enthusiasm from audiences. The Encounter was performed to a full house at the Barbican all throughout its time there in 2016 and 2017. It was widely praised by leading critics and won several awards including the Special Tony Award for Sound Design in 2017.
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. Inspired by the book Amazon Beaming by Petru Popescu, 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.
The Encounter was co-produced by the Barbican in London, Edinburgh International Festival, Onassis Cultural Center in Athens, the Schaubühne in Berlin, the Vidy-Lausanne Theater, and the Warwick Arts Centre.
The Encounter online is supported by The Space.