THE ENCOUNTER Previews — Page 2

GreasedLightning said: "I have to highly disagree, personally ^

Rear Mezz of the Golden is my least favorite seat on Broadway. And I've sat in the balcony at the Kerr!



"

Interesting! Well we all have our own opinions. For this show at least I did not mind the rear mezz the slightest bit.

And here is a post that was on ATC a short time ago by someone who is a regular poster here as well.; "A haunting, visceral theater experience awaits audiences at the Golden." I am wondering if "The Wiz" saw the first preview as he usually does. Whizzer?

I'll look forward to seeing what you think. Thanks for responding.

WhizzerMarvin said: "There were actually three Broadway first previews last night so my schedule is a little messed up right now, ha. I was at The Front Page last night, but will be at The Encounter tonight. (Love, Love, Love begins tomorrow and Oh, Hello starts on Friday; Heisenberg was the third show that began last night. Did all the producers get together and say, you know, we should all really begins previews the week of 9/18!)"

Whizzer, have to admit I was wondering which of the three you were going to see last night...

Looking forward to your take on this...

I suffered through two shows this week. The Cherry Orchard and now The Encounter. What a way to start the New Theatre Season. This show I can not recommend to anyone. Is there an audience for somethig like this on Broadway ? I found it boring and thanks to tdf didn't pay to much.

Oh now I understand why everything I've read about this show has been so vague and ineffectual in actually describing the proceedings.

The most recent play that springs to mind when comparing anything to The Encounter is Privacy, which was also interactive and played like a massive TED talk. Similarly, parts of The Encounter felt like a college lecture on the constructs of time and language, with diversions into how our brain processes sound, memory and past, present and future.

The other part of The Encounter is a one person play narrative about an American explorer in 1969 who stranded himself 400 miles from "civilization" in the Amazon basin in search of a tribe heretofore believed never to have been in contact with modern society. There are many musings about the ethics in doing this, and some of this I found interesting. The portions of pure survival story are intriguing and would make for a good movie.

Unfortunately, the Amazonian narrative is often interrupted and stalled until it wildly overstays its welcome in the final 30 minutes; runtime is 2 hrs.

Everyone wears headphones and the sound design is pretty spectacular. The sound jumps from side to side and back to front. He overlaps different sounds- the first time we hear the jungle is rather impressive- but sometimes the cacophony is overwhelming in an oppressive, messy way.

I respected the immense amount of work that must have gone into creating the piece, but my respect didn't translate into enthusiasm or joy too often. What can be best said about The Encounter is that it's unique and different from other Broadway offerings. Honestly this would go over better with the BAM crowd- clearly the reactions here will end up being mixed at best.

This sounds like something that will end its limited engagement early.

Ugh.

This constant negative after taste these past couple nights makes me so sad. It seems to be promoted as something truly extraordinary, never-seen-before spectacular. Clearly, it's just a 2-hr excursion through the Amazon at the same plodding speed...



I guess I won't see this one. At this rate. I'm praying to get some positivity out of this.

See, I was most engaged when it was the survival narrative in the Amazon. I liked hearing how he interacted with the tribe and had to think on his feet to survive. I dreaded the interruptions from daughter, and while some of the more metaphysical musings were interesting, I wanted more of the superficial story with the fun jungle sounds. Those sequences were like listening to Bert Healy and the Boylan sisters doing their thing.

The first 5-10 minutes setting up how we hear, etc worked for me, but once we jumped into the narrative I longed to stay there. Of course, I have to admit I hated the ceremony back to the beginning and couldn't wait for it to end.

The vaguely worded ads made me extraordinarily intrigued and even a little amped for this. These reviews, however, sound painfully and dreadfully boring.

Updated On: 9/21/16 at 11:31 PM

Seeing it tomorrow. Not sure what to think. I'm SUCH a visual person, that part of me is a little bummed. It seems like this would have been interesting to hear while on the subway, but not to pay and sit and listen. I like visuals. I like seeing design, etc. So not sure this is my thing. But hey, the ticket is free. So I'll try it.

After Eight said: "If I wanted a radio broadcast experience, I could listen to a tape of one in the comfort of my own home, without the constraints of a headphone..."

Small point, the psycho-acoustics of binaural audio only work if you're wearing headphones, but I get what you mean.

I assumed you'd seen the show, which is how you'd know it's a waste or not. The binaural aspect (why you need headphones) is explained in the show. Also, Google.