The Encounter (2017) Program

THE ENCOUNTER 2 – 10 FEB

2 – 10 FEB MERLYN THEATRE INSPIRED BY THE BOOK AMAZON BEAMING BY PETRU POPESCU

PERFORMER / Richard Katz DIRECTOR / Simon McBurney CO-DIRECTOR / Kirsty Housley DESIGN / Michael Levine SOUND / Gareth Fry with Pete Malkin LIGHTING / Paul Anderson

TECHNICAL STAGE MANAGER / Sam Phillips COMPANY STAGE MANAGER / Joanne Woolley ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER / Holly Gould ASSISTANT PRODUCER / Naomi Webb

PROJECTION / Will Duke

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER / Poppy Keeling

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR / Jemima James

PRODUCER / Judith Dimant

PRODUCTION MANAGER / Niall Black

WITH THE VOICES OF Romeo Corisepa Dreve, Claudia Hammond, David Farmer, Chris Frith, Martha Katz, George Marshall, Noma McBurney, Iain McGilchrist, Petru Popescu, Iris Friedman, Steven Rose, Marcus du Sautoy, Rebecca Spooner, Jess Worth & Nixiwaka Yawanawa

SOUND SUPERVISOR / Guy Coletta SOUND ENGINEER / Amir Sherhan SOUND ENGINEER / Laura Hammond SOUND ENGINEER / Samantha Broomfield ASSOCIATE LIGHTING DESIGNER / Laurence Russell PROJECTION SUPERVISOR / Sam Hunt

ARTISTIC COLLABORATORS / David Annen, Simon Dormandy, Naomi Frederick, Victoria Gould, Tim McMullan, Tom Morris & Saskia Reeves

A Complicite co-production with Edinburgh International Festival, the Barbican, London, Onassis Cultural Centre – Athens, Schaubühne Berlin, Théâtre VidyLausanne and Warwick Arts Centre.

THE HUT IS CRAMMED WITH PEOPLE AND SITTING BETWEEN US ALL LIKE SOME 21ST CENTURY TOTEM IS A BINAURAL HEAD, THE MICROPHONE THAT RECORDS IN SO CALLED ‘3D’. #THEENCOUNTER © CHLOE COURTNEY

A NOTE FROM THE DIRECTOR

SIMON MCBURNEY: WE SEE ONLY WHAT WE WANT TO SEE When making a piece of theatre I am, frequently, if not most of the time, in the dark. I truly do not know where we will end up.

The concrete walls are so thick no sound from the outside world enters your ear canals and the vast foam wedges that cover the walls absorb sound to such an extent that a clap becomes a tap.

We’re going to shut the door now and we’ll open it again in 20 minutes. Is that ok?

Yep, I guess.

Have you ever sat in total silence?

In the dark?

I’ll be fine.

My breathing sounds like a set of bellows; my heartbeat like an arrhythmic drum machine.

As a result of spending 63 days in silence on a Vipassana retreat, Yuval Noah Harari, the acclaimed author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, proclaimed it the ideal tool with which to scientifically observe his own mind. He came to realise he had no idea who he really was and that the fictional story in his head, and the connection between that and reality, was extremely tenuous.

Why am I here?

It is 40°C, my clothes are already sodden although we have only been here an hour. Or have we? I’ve lost track of time and I have no battery on my phone. In fact I don’t know why I have a phone at all given there is no signal here. We are sitting in the house of Lourival Mayoruna, the headman or ‘cacique’ of Marajaí, a village of Mayoruna people deep in the Brazilian Amazon, an hour’s flight west of Manaus and four hours by boat up the river Solimões.

Ok well... if you freak out then push this button and we’ll open the door.

The vast door to the anechoic chamber, which is, as the name suggests, a room without echoes, at the Building Research Establishment (BRE) in Watford, closes definitively behind me.

Lourival, according to local protocol, talks to us as part of our welcome into the village—and has been doing so for the best part of an hour.

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I am in total darkness. And total silence. I don’t mean the silence of three in the morning at home, or even the silence of the remotest place on earth, I mean total silence.

A NOTE FROM THE DIRECTOR

The hut is crammed with people and sitting between us all like some 21st century totem is a binaural head, the microphone that records in so called ‘3D’.

Watford.

Why? To see what it’s like.

I look at my son. He is four.

I’m not sure he buys this answer.

Paul Heritage, head of People’s Palace Projects, who has lived for more than 20 years in Brazil, translates as Lourival winds down...

When is Christmas?

A long time. Several months.

When it is winter, when it will be cold again.

So you have come all this way and I have one question...

It was cold today.

Yes, ok, but not very cold.

Lourival leans forward, looking me in the eye.

Yes it was. I was cold.

You’re right, it was cold.

Why are you here?

How long is several months?

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I nervously lick the wet salt off my upper lip, and sweat stings my eyes as everyone turns towards me.

I mutter something about moons and loads of sleeps.

Maybe this high-pitched hiss generated by my auditory nerves is something more sinister. I should get my ears checked for tinnitus when I get out of here. How much longer?

I think you need to reply, says Paul.

The sounds of the forest and the village become extremely loud all of a sudden. I clear my throat.

The slight rising panic makes me realise the noise I am now hearing is the sound of fluids circulating in my head. And there is a high-pitched hiss caused by spontaneous firings of the auditory nerve. How long have I been sitting here in darkness? I squeeze my phone. Five minutes. I thought it was at least half an hour.

45 minutes.

What?

You’ve been speaking for 45 minutes.

Good god.

I got it all, whispers Gareth, my sound designer, who looks even more sodden than I do in the Amazonian heat, unplugging the totem.

I look round the room. Silence.

I am not sure how it has gone down.

In English the word rehearsal derives from ‘hearse’ which means to rake over. To prepare the ground.

Where are you going?

To work on my show...

What are you doing?

Um... sitting in a dark silent room in

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A NOTE FROM THE DIRECTOR

mind. Our ears, without us asking, form a filter and help to create a ‘normal’ reality, but one in which we hear ‘selectively’. As with our ears, so it is with all our senses. Our eyes, our sense of smell, every way in which we perceive the world creates a gap between what is actually happening and the story we make of it. We see only what we want to see...

And one way for me to prepare has always been to perform or improvise a show I am making to those who have never heard it before. Because the story is not the show. It is not even the performance that is the show. The show is made in the minds of the audience. I want to know what they see. What they hear. I look at Lourival. He smiles.

The technician looks at me inquiringly.

We are moved by your story, he says. Your story about this man who was lost, but who survived. Your story is about many people, but it is also about us, the Mayoruna. And it tells us that others in this world know of the Mayoruna people. You tell the world that we have survived.

Many have perished. We have survived. But whether we will all survive... that is another matter.

How was it?

Disorientating.

And how did that feel? #THEENCOUNTER

Familiar.

He laughs.

So is it funny?

What?

Your performance.

My son examines me. I glance at him sideways. Draw in my breath.

The door suddenly creaks open and I am out in the Watford sunlight again, blinking. What greets me I don’t expect. It shocks me. It is a roar. So loud I want to block my ears. Traffic, voices, machinery, planes... industrial, all encompassing, unstoppable. The shock is that most of the time, I do not hear it because our auditory system blocks out our conscious

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© JOAN MARCUS

Petru Popescu is Romania’s best-known novelist. In his homeland, he wrote mordant anti-communist prose that put him in direct conflict with dictator Ceaușescu. When invited to the International Writers’ Workshop of the University of Iowa, Popescu defected to the West. He has travelled extensively, including to Amazonia, where he met Loren McIntyre, who shared his life story with the writer. Mesmerised by Loren’s accounts of being kidnapped by elusive tribes and of discovering the source of the giant river, Popescu wrote The Encounter: Amazon Beaming. He followed it with The New York Times bestsellers Almost Adam and The Oasis. Popescu lives in California and is currently working on a new novel.

© E VA V E R M A N D E L

Richard Katz PERFORMER

Simon McBurney DIRECTOR

Richard Katz’s work with Complicite includes The Master and Margarita, Measure for Measure and The Noise of Time.

He has been a contributor to the development of The Encounter since its inception.

Theatre credits include 1984, The Lorax, War Horse (West End); Nell Gwynn, Richard II (Shakespeare’s Globe); As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors and Romeo and Juliet (RSC).

TV credits include Taboo, Crossing Lines, The Honourable Woman, Ambassadors, Poirot, Hustle, Rome, Nicholas Nickleby.

Film credits include The Infiltrator, The Chameleon, Guardians of the Galaxy, Sixty Six and Enigma. For radio, he wrote and performed Marley Was Dead, Newbury Arms and The Trespasser’s Guide to the Classics.

Simon McBurney is a multiOlivier Award-winning, Tony and SAG Award-nominated actor, writer, director and one of Europe’s most original theatre makers. He is co-founder of Complicite, ‘...Britain’s most innovative theatre company’ (New Statesman). His directing credits with Complicite include Ungeduld des Herzens (Beware of Pity), a co-production with the Schaubühne, Berlin, The Master and Margarita, Shunkin, A Disappearing Number, Measure for Measure, A Minute Too Late, The Elephant Vanishes, Strange Poetry and The Street of Crocodiles. Other directing credits include All My Sons on Broadway and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui with Al Pacino in New York. Opera credits include The Magic Flute and A Dog’s Heart, both produced

by De Nederlandse Opera and English National Opera in collaboration with Complicite.

He is a prolific film, television and radio actor and has starred in many major movies, including The Theory of Everything, Magic in the Moonlight, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, The Last King of Scotland and most recently The Conjuring 2 and Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation.

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Petru Popescu AUTHOR OF AMAZON BEAMING

© WOLF MARLOH

© ZAN WIMBERLEY

CAST & CREATIVE BIOS

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© GIANMARCO BRESADOLA

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ABOUT MALTHOUSE THEATRE

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT At Malthouse Theatre we collaborate with local and international artists to create inventive performances that cut to the core of the human experience. #THEENCOUNTER

Theatre has the power to interrogate, disrupt and to be an agent of change—and we think it always should. At Malthouse Theatre the work we produce explores the world personally, socially and politically.

Based in a dedicated venue, The Coopers Malthouse in Melbourne, we are a home for live experiences that entertain and provoke a dialogue with and within audiences.

Welcome to Malthouse Theatre.

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ABOUT MALTHOUSE THEATRE

GOVERNMENT PARTNERS

VENUE PARTNER

EDUCATION PARTNER

MAJOR PARTNER

ACCOMMODATION PARTNER

CORPORATE PARTNERS

MEDIA PARTNER

INDUSTRY PARTNER

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TRUSTS AND FOUNDATIONS

OUR SUPPORTERS URANIA—MUSE OF THE STARS—$25,000+ Michele Levine, Mary-Ruth & Peter McLennan, Craig Reeves, Maureen Wheeler AO & Tony Wheeler AO CLIO—MUSE OF HISTORY—$10,000+ Roseanne Amarant, Annamila Fund, John & Lorraine Bates, Debbie Dadon AM, Colin Golvan QC, Janine Tai, The Vera Moore Foundation, Anonymous (2) THALIA—MUSE OF COMEDY—$5,000+ Richard Leonard & Gerlinde Scholz, Mary Vallentine AO, Anonymous (1) MELPOMENE—MUSE OF TRAGEDY—$2,500+ David Bardas, D.L. & G.S. Gjergja, Rosemary Forbes & Ian Hocking, Sue Kirkham, James Penlidis & Fiona McGauchie, Elisabeth & John Schiller, Dr Jenny Schwarz, Leonard Vary & Dr Matt Collins QC, Jason Waple, Jon Webster, Jan Williams, Tom Wright, Anonymous (1) EUTERPE—MUSE OF MUSIC—$1,000+ Frankie Airey & Stephen Solly, Chryssa Anagnostou & Dr Jim Tsaltas, Marc Besen

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AC & Eva Besen AO, John & Sally Bourne, Sally Browne, Beth Brown & Tom Bruce AM, Ingrid & Per Carlsen, Min Li Chong, Prof John Daley & Dr Rebecca Coates, Andrew Curtis, Mark & Jo Davey, Dominic & Natalie Dirupo, Roger Donazzan, Rev Fr Michael Elligate AM, Dr Sian Fairbank, Brian Goddard, Val Johnstone, Michael Kingston, James Ostroburski, Rosemary & Roger Redston, Carol & Alan Schwartz AM, Robert Sessions & Christina Fitzgerald, Thea & Hayden Snow, Maria Solà, Gina & Paul Stuart, Toby Sullivan, Fiona Sweet & Paul Newcombe, Kerri Turner & Andrew White, Rosemary Walls, Pinky Watson, Henry Winters, Anonymous (1) TERPSICHORE—MUSE OF DANCE—$500+ Graham & Anita Anderson, Michael Arnold, Rowland Ball OAM, Sandra Beanham, David & Rhonda Black, Ros Casey, Tim & Rachel Cecil, Marisa Cesario, Chris Clough, Alan Connolly, Carolyn Floyd, Leonie Hollingworth, Brad Hooper, Dr Irene Irvine, Joan & Graeme Johnson OAM, Dr Irene Kearsey, Dr Angela Kirsner & Dr Richard Kirsner, Virginia Lovett, John McCallum, Ian McRae AO, Linda Notley,

LEAD IMAGE PHOTOGRAPHY / ZAN WIMBERLEY ZANWIMBERLEY.COM

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Jan Owen AM, Robert Peters, Katherine Sampson, Barbara & Neil Smart, John Thomas, Neil Waters, Phil & Heather Wilson, Anonymous (4) ERATO—MUSE OF LOVE—$250+ Simon Abrahams, Jennifer Bourke, Fiona Brook, John & Alexandra Busselmaier, Siu Chan, Diane Clark, Georgie Coleman, Patricia Coutts, Jason Craig, Kerryn Dickinson-Rowe, Brian Doyle, Orla & Rachel, Taleen Gaidzkar, Joanne Griffiths, Peggy Hayton, Sarah Hunt, Ann Kemeny & Graham Johnson, Mira & Dr David Kolieb, Robyn Lansdowne, Sally Lindsay, Kim Lowndes, Judith Maitland-Parr, Ian Manning & Alice De Jonge, John Millard, Susan Nathan, Paul Natoli, Dr Kersti Nogeste, Tony Oliver, Kaylene O’Neill, Gerard Powell, Gavin Roach, Pauline Robert, Rae Rothfield, Dr Michael & Jenny Rozen, Dr Jill Sewell, Chris Teh, Lee-Ann Walsh, Jan Watson, Gary Westbrook, Joanne Whyte, Barbara Yuncken VOLUNTEERS Malthouse Theatre would like to acknowledge the generous and ongoing support of our dedicated volunteers.

DESIGN / HOURS AFTER HOURSAFTER.COM.AU

MALTHOUSE THEATRE STAFF

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Michele Levine (Chair), John Daley (Deputy Chair), Debbie Dadon AM, Colin Golvan QC, Michael Kantor, Jan Owen AM, Pamela Rabe, Nick Schlieper, Kerri Turner, Mary Vallentine AO & Leonard Vary.

ARTISTIC & PROGRAMMING Artistic Director & CO-CEO / Matthew Lutton Executive Producer & CO-CEO / Sarah Neal Resident Dramaturg / Mark Pritchard Resident Artist / Declan Greene Producer / Toby Sullivan Associate Producer / Jason Tamiru

TICKETING & BOX OFFICE

EDUCATION

CRM & Ticketing Manager / Prue Sutherland

Youth & Education Manager / Vanessa O’Neill

Box Office Manager / Dan Allemann

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Venue Manager / Aaron Rowlands

Box Office Staff / Abbey Barnes, Ian Michael, Jade Thomson, Lauren White, Michelle Hines, Paul Buckley

Front of House Staff / Jo Bassilios, Abi Murray, Alice Hill, Alice Dixon, Aly Grace, Amelia O’Brien, Amy Dowd, Andrew Foord, Anna Nalpantidis, Carissa Godwin, Daniel Moulds, Daniel Newell, Dirk Hoult, Emma Corbett, Fiona Moody, Gem Clarke, Ian Mitchell, James Chantner, Jessi Lewis, Kate Calton, Kate Gregory, Kathryn Joy, Kirilie Blythman, Lara Kerestes, Lee Threadgold, Leon Rice-Whetton, Mark Hoffman, Matilda Woodroofe, Mitchell Brotz, Pamela Cupit, Sam Harrison, Sanne Rodenstein, Sophia D’Urso, Syrie Payne, Tanja George

DEVELOPMENT

Company Manager / Alice Muhling

Development Manager / Jayne Lovelock

FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION

Philanthropy Coordinator / Belinda Locke

Finance Manager / Mario Agostinoni Finance Administrator / Liz White General Manager / Amanda Macri MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS Marketing & Communications Manager / Caraline Douglas Digital Marketing Coordinator / Davey Simmons Communications Coordinator / Alex Sadka Publicist / TS Publicity Graphic Design / Hours After

VENUE MANAGEMENT

Box Office Team Leaders / Jo Basilios Fiona Wiseman Kate Gregory

Sponsorship Coordinator / Olivia Satchwell PRODUCTION Production Manager / David Miller Workshop Managers / David Craig Goffredo Mameli Technical Manager / Baird Mckenna Operations Manager / Dexter Varley Head Electrician / Stephen Hawker Venue Head Mechanist / Ivan Smith Head Of Wardrobe / Delia Spicer Theatre Technician / Nathanael Bristow Workshop Assistant / Elizabeth Whitten

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Front of House Managers / Sean Ladhams & Anita Posterino

ABORIGINAL & TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER COMMITTEE Uncle Jack Charles, Richard Frankland, Tony Briggs, Lisa Maza, Pauline Wyman, Melodie ReynoldsDiarra & Jason Tamiru Malthouse Theatre acknowledges we are on the Land of the Boon wurrung Peoples within the Kulin Nation.

© JOAN MARCUS

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WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

ASPIRING AND AMBITIOUS, THEATRE DIRECTOR WANG CHONG IS ON A MISSION - THE GLOBAL TIMES

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LITTLE EMPERORS 小皇帝 9 – 26 FEB curb population growth, an entire generation was raised without siblings. Pampered, entitled, and bucking against China’s proud tradition of filial piety, these children were born bearing the weight of their parents’ expectations.

Award-winning Australian writer Lachlan Philpott and one of Beijing’s most innovative directors, Wang Chong, team up to explore the stories, secrets and aspirations of the children of the One Child Policy. Introduced in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution to WRITTEN BY / Lachlan Philpott

DIRECTION / Wang Chong

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WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

THE HOMOSEXUALS, OR FAGGOTS 17 FEB – 12 MAR Star of screen and stage Simon Burke and cabaret wunderkind Mama Alto, join the all-star cast of Genevieve Lemon, Simon Corfield, and Lincoln Younes in this hilarious comedy of errors, that takes a magnifying glass to political correctness.

PIECE FOR PERSON AND GHETTO BLASTER

AWAY

BY MICHAEL GOW

15 – 26 MAR

Matthew Lutton unleashes the intimacy of Michael Gow’s epic tale of family, darkness and hope.

This production of one of Australia’s greatest classics pits the internal conflict of family life against the struggle of a country shaping its indeterminate future.

This Helpmann Award winning show comes to you from Nicola Gunn with her signature wit; last seen at Malthouse Theatre in A Social Service.

3 – 28 M AY

FIND OUT MORE AT MALTHOUSETHEATRE.COM.AU

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SEASON 2017

ABOUT

HELP COMPLICITE TO CREATE NEW WORK

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Founded in 1983, London-based Complicite has toured the world and are known as one of the UK’s most exciting and enduring theatre companies. Complicite was last seen in Australia in 2008 at Sydney Theatre Company with A Disappearing Number. The company continues to experiment, and break new ground with every new show. 2016 saw the launch of Complicite Associates, a new programme to support theatre makers and artists. Bryony Kimmings was the inaugural Complicite Associate and A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer was its first production which played at the National Theatre in London. Recent productions include Ungeduld des Herzens (Beware of Pity), a co-production with the Schaubühne, Berlin; Lionboy, its first show for young people and families; and Shunkin, co-produced with the Setagaya Public Theatre, Tokyo. The company is also known for its award-winning Creative Learning programme, which provides innovative opportunities for audience engagement.

Complicite’s shows are created over many months of exploration, trial and error. The company would be unable to work in this way without the generous support of its individual supporters, whose donations help fund all new work.

For more information on the different ways to support Complicite and the benefits donors enjoy, please contact us on: email@complicite.org +44 (0)20 7485 7700 Registered charity number 1012507 SHOP

The Encounter play text is available from Complicite’s online shop complicite.org/shop.php The Encounter: Amazon Beaming

by Petru Popescu is available from Pushkin Press pushkinpress.com/ book/the-encounter/ TheatredeComplicite Complicite CompliciteCompany Complicite Theatre complicite.org

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© SARAH AINSLIE

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SEASON 2017

SCENE & HEARD

It takes four people two hours to check, untangle and preset every pair of headphones prior to each performance of The Encounter

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