Brandon M Weber and Zena Wood in Encounter at Just The Tonic @ Legends. Picture: Curran Banach
Encounter continues at Just The Tonic @ Legends until 24 August 2025.
Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
Zany, new, sci-fi comedy-musical Encounter explores what it means to date on Planet Earth today as a thirty-something woman.
It’s the age old story; Weather Girl meets Alien, Alien asks Weather Girl to help repopulate Martian race. And it’s a good story; amusing and relatable.
Space Weather Girl (Zena Wood) has tried dating, considered egg freezing and now encounters a brand new option. Friendly and funny, Wood immediately brings the audience onside, introducing the different elements of this kooky show, before beginning her Live Space Weather Broadcast. Full of fascinating facts, she gives the audience an interactive space lesson, until her broadcast is interrupted by an unknown ‘someone’.
Fabulous and refreshing, Greg the Alien (Brandon M Weber) bursts onto the scene and into her life – and what an Alien he is. Brimming with charm and presence, he sashays onto the stage, injecting the show with irresistible energy.
The show is delightfully surprising and full of laughter throughout. Space broadcasts are interspersed with stellar songs, stand-up style storytelling and a couple of brief ‘spa breaks’. Complete with an effervescent space dance and interactive games, Encounter keeps the audience on its toes.
Having so many different elements provides the eccentric, unexpected feel that makes Encounter unique. At times the result can be overly scattered. Starting strong, aspects of the show lose snappiness as it progresses. Some stories might benefit from further editing, and jokes, which are introduced as recurring at the beginning, are either not revisited or not used to their full potential.
Well-timed sound and music, performed by Robert Briggs, provides a dynamic, quirky underpinning to the onstage action. The all new songs, though not precisely catchy, are varied, attention-grabbing and performed skilfully, but the show lacks an opening song.
It’s a wacky space lesson, hilarious and fun, carried through with a story which, at its core, asks ‘what is love?’. It is well worth a watch for anyone trying to manoeuvre their way through adulthood on Planet Earth, in its current rocky state.
Molly Glenn
SHARE THIS POST:
Comments are closed.