The Encounter

The Immersive Broadway Hit

Unlike anything you've experienced before, The Encounter is an extraordinary aural and visual marvel created and performed by Simon McBurney. Alone on the darkly lit stage, McBruney leads the audience into the heart of the Amazon rainforest by way of masterful storytelling and state-of-the-art binaural sound technology. The show made its debut at the Edinburgh festival, before blowing away Broadway audiences in 2016.

The magic of the Encounter lies with the special set of headphones given to every audience member, which channel not only McBurney up on stage, but also a three-dimensional collage of pre-recorded sound effects, speech and music. Everything from the the sound of water dripping through the rainforest canopy to the distant cries of animals is conjured up in your ears, sucking you completely into McBurney's story.

WHAT IS THE ENCOUNTER ABOUT?

An aural soup that will swallow you whole, The Encounter is based around the true story of Loren McIntyre's 1969 expedition into the Amazon rainforest. A photographer for The National Geographic, McIntyre's goal was to document the little known Mayoruna tribe, but after becoming lost in the jungle, he ended up living with them. Around this central thread, McBurney hangs interviews with scientists about the nature of communication, musings on the human condition and even a meta-narrative about his own struggles constructing the show.