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| Richard Katz in The Encounter |
The Encounter
Inspired by the book Amazon Beaming by Petru Popescu. Directed by Simon McBurney. Co-directed by Kirsty Housley. Associate D. Jemima James.Associate Director. Performed by Richard Katz. Designed by Michael Levine. Sound by Gareth Fry with Pete Malkin. Lighting. Paul Anderson. Projection. Will Duke. Complicite. Dunstan Playhouse. Adelaide Festival Centre. Tues. March 7 – Sat. March 11. 2017. Adelaide Festival.
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
A set of headphones sits
inconspicuously upon the back of your seat. Once upon the head the perception
of sound, of time and of the world about us changes. A voice whispers Now I am
in your left ear. Now I am in your right ear.” Over and over. Performer Richard
Katz enters a stage, set up with microphones and a vast collection of drink
bottles. Behind him is a sound reflective backdrop. He speaks and the voice
sounds within the head, low and haunting, moving from ear to ear as other
sounds permeate the eardrums, creating a world of mystery and surreal reality.
Or is it fiction? What is reality? What is Time? A physicist discourses upon
the nature of Time. Rebecca floats across the conversation to discuss the
character of indigenous peoples. A
child’s voice pierces the recording to ask Katz what he is doing. We are
transported to his London home. Time and distance become one and he ordered
world is now a continuum of shifting realities. We are unsettled, fascinated,
compelled to listen to the 3D audio that now swirls through space and Time to
echo through our head, transported throughout the theatre by binaural
technology.
And so Katz and director Simon
McBurney lead us into the extraordinary adventures of National Geographic
photojournalist Loren McIntyre, kidnapped in 1969 by the Mayoruna Indians of
the remote Javari region of the Amazon Valley. Through the headphones we are
drawn into the engrossing world of radio theatre by a live actor playing out
the intense experience of McIntyre, lost in the jungle, confronted by an
indigenous tribe, compelled without language to rely on his wits to survive. Sounds
of the jungle, of the tribe, of the animals invade the mind, heightening the
suspense, charging the danger, imagining a total world through sound. On stage,
Katz inhabits McIntyre, furiously building the action, managing the sound
effects and breaking role to speak to his daughter who enters the room. The
atmosphere is pregnant with the heart pounding danger of an unfamiliar,
frightening and disorientating world in which language and customary
communication provides no security.
Gradually, Katz introduces the
characters of this amazing adventure. He takes on the roles of Barnacle, the
leader of the Mayoruna, Red Cheeks, a tribesman, and Barnacle’s son, and Cambio,
his interpretor, who is able to lead him to safety. I sit in the theatre,
immersed in Katz’s spellbinding tale,
enacted with the sheer artistry of a master storyteller, illuminating
the myth, physicalizing the peril and conjuring the sounds and effects within
our minds. Is this reality? Is this fiction? Is this true and what is Truth? A
swirling sea of sound dispels all notion of reality. I am cast back into the
boys’ own adventures of Rider-Haggard. I am reminded of the destruction of
ancient cultures and traditions by civilizations erected on greed and material
values. These are salutary lessons, not exposed merely by an actor upon a
stage, who keeps his audience captivated for two utterly engrossing hours, but echoing through
consciousness to inhabit conscience. What have we done? What do we continue to
do? What is Truth? What is Reality? What lessons are there to learn about
ourselves, our society and out treatment of our fellow humans. Like the sounds
of the story, the questions continue to whirl through our heads in search of
answers.
Complicite stretches the mind,
confronts assumption, challenges expectation and in The Encounter transports us on an unexpected, mind-blowing and
thrilling adventure, exploring the story of the amazing Loren McIntyre. On
March 24th, Loren McIntyre would have turned one hundred.
Complicite’s The Encounter is this
innovative company’s tribute to the discoverer of the Amazon’s furthest source.
His memory deserves recognition, and Katz’s performance is a worthy tribute.