Simon McBurney vs. Richard Katz in THE ENCOUNTER

Hello all! I just got home from my third viewing of the mind blowing The Encounter. I saw it twice with Mr. McBurney and specifically wanted to see Richard Katz to see if the play still holds up with the actor who didn't create it, and I was just very interested to see what somebody else could do with the material, since the material is so personal to Mr. McBurney.

The play holds up pretty much exactly the same, but I have a question for anyone who saw Mr. Katz's performance, especially if anyone saw it this evening. Unfortunately, I was waiting online to buy a bottle of water and the pre-show had already started before I got to my seat, which was one of the main things I wanted to see Mr. Katz do.

I got to my seat while the house lights were still up and Mr. Katz was making fun of the late comers, as Mr. McBurney did. As soon as I sat down, he told everyone to put on their headphones and the play began. But my question is this...

During the preshow with Mr. McBurney, he has so many lines about his daughter and his cell phone having so many pictures of his child on it, so he takes a picture of the audience to prove to her that he's actually working. He also speaks about several recordings, saying stuff like this recording was recorded in my flat in London two years ago, this play is based on the book I read, etc. This is all very personal stuff to Mr. McBurney.

Did Mr. Katz say the same dialogue? Or did he say something along the lines of "Hi I'm Richard Katz and this is a recording that Simon took in his apartment a couple of years ago, etc."

The rest of the play stayed pretty much exactly the same. He spoke to his daughter as if she was his own, even though it's a recording of Mr. McBurney's child in real life. The only thing that was different was after the curtain call, Mr. Katz thanked the sound people but didn't speak about his time in the Amazon the way Mr. McBurney does. He just thanked us and left.

This might be a silly question, but it's something that I'm upset I missed and I was very curious about. Does anybody have any information? Does anybody work as an usher at that theatre or has anyone seen Richard Katz's performance and might have some insight into how Mr. Katz might have changed or not changed the pre-show opening? Thank you so so much! Any help at all will really help me sleep tonight ha ha

Darn concession stand/bathroom lines!!! :/

Updated On: 1/9/17 at 12:19 AM

Yes, I know what you mean! But it's still SO SO amazing! I take it you saw it with Simon McBurney?

Thank you very much for the answer! Does anybody else have any other comments or insights about this? Maybe some specific dialogue that you remember?

I caught the final performance of The Encounter today. I had been putting it off the entire run and seriously considered skipping it because I didn't really have a lot of interest. However, I decided at the last minute that I wanted to see this since it is my goal this season to see every musical and play to open on Broadway.



While I am glad I saw this, I have one MAJOR complaint about this play... it was 30 minutes too long. My enjoyment of the play was pretty much completely ruined by the last 30 minutes. The last 30 minutes were not horrible, but I easily felt like the entire play could have done with some trimming all around to make it thirty minutes shorter. The length of the play became apparent to me during that last half hour. I just saw no reason why this could not be a 90 minute show. A shorter running time would have made the play more concise, enjoyable, and powerful.



Simon McBurney was absolutely phenomenal. The mere physicality of the role is unbelievable. He was stellar to watch. I also loved the headsets. It's shows like these that make me miss the Tonys for Sound Design.



This was an interesting play to me because I walked in not expecting much, LOVED the first 90 minutes, but in the end I was let down by the show just being too long. Again, I'm glad I saw it, and I loved the acting and concept, but overall, it was just too much material for the simple story and play.