review. YOUARENOWHERE @ 3LD Studio (New York)

Andrew Schneider's YOUARENOWHERE is not your run of the mill theatrical experience. It is a merger of text and movement, technology and humanity, and conversation with existential interrogation. The play immediately immerses the audience in its world, demanding that we believe the truth of this place and time as we think we know it, and simultaneously challenges that notion of knowing.  We, the audience, are Heiddegerian beings flung forward from the very moment Schneider enters the performance space, and for days afterward. What are we experiencing? What is missing? Why aren't we more concerned about these gaps? 

Even the title evokes this questioning. You-Are-Nowhere? or You-Are-Now-Here? Both are relevant and appropriate and yet neither is quite right. This piece exists in the space between those two interpretations of its title, it seems. Here is a brief preview. Get tickets. This runs in NYC until April 10 after which it transfers to the Lift festival in London, which I have heard is sold out. 

review. The Encounter @ Barbican London (via Live Stream) - Complicité

I often rant on about how theatre can be magical. This is a difficult rant, because for most people, the experience of truly magical theatrical experiences is just a myth. They've heard tell of it, but never truly been encompassed and transformed in the way that theatre has the capacity to do for us. 

This can change. 

Complicité are known for their genre-defying, technically stupendous work, so it is not surprising that when they set out to create an immersive play out of sounds, for which you sit with others but wear headphones, they succeeded in creating something truly magical. Written and performed by the company's leader, the astounding Simon McBurney, The Encounter is an audio experience -- but that doesn't do it justice. It is an overwhelming sensory experience, a new way of feeling a story, not just hearing or seeing it. It is a man and sound; nothing more. I won't say a ton, other than to let you know that you will not soon encounter anything quite like this. 

Lucky for us, The Encounter isn't limited in space and time; thanks to technology, you can stream the recorded live stream from The Barbican in London for a week via Complicité's Youtube channel. 

Do yourself a favour. Put on the headphones, turn everything else off, and immerse yourself for the 2 hours of The Encounter. I assure you, you will not regret it. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghc-DM1TVWU