No actors, no technicians. Just a box. And you.
A box is mailed to the theatre.
The instructions are clear:
Invite a group of people, on a specific night, at a specific time.
Let the audience take their seats.
Place the box at the centre of the stage.
The audience is waiting.
And then an audience member stands up and opens the box.
The show has started.
In Handle with Care, Ontroerend Goed puts you in control. We provide the structure; you shape the experience. Choose your role—take the lead or observe as others make choices that steer the performance in unexpected directions. Together, you create something special: a shared experience filled with reflections on time, transience, and togetherness.
And don’t worry—there are no wrong choices in Handle with Care. You’ve got this. For one hour, you’ll live something unique, fleeting, and unrepeatable.
Here. Now. Together. No one is watching. What is yours, stays yours. Take good care of it. And send us a postcard.
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The Belgian theatre-performance-group Ontroerend Goed (a punning name, roughly translated as “Feel Estate”) produces self-devised work grounded in the here and now, inviting their audiences to participate as well as observe. Whether they are performing backwards, turning spectators into voters who eliminate actors, guiding strangers through a labyrinth of mirrors and avatars to meet themselves, or placing the audience at the controls of the financial system, the company has made it its trademark to be unpredictable in content and form.
They first emerged on the international scene in 2007, with ‘The Smile Off Your Face’, a one-on-one show in which the audience is tied to a wheelchair and then blindfolded. Their hit show ‘Once and For All’ was an uncompromising celebration of raw teenage energy on stage. Since then, the Belgian company has won numerous prizes across Europe and has hit New York, Sydney, and London to critical acclaim. Ontroerend Goed tours worldwide and creates remakes of their productions in other languages: there are versions in Russian, French, Mandarin, Cantonese and Kazakh, among others.
Ontroerend Goed delivers intense experiences built in the reality of theater. Convinced that life goes on during a performance, the group fabricates possible realities that question how we as individuals position ourselves in the world today. Led by artistic director Alexander Devriendt, the collective is convinced that every idea deserves its own brand of artistic expression, the company cherishes a sense of ownership for every single contributor to their work, from actors to light designers, scenographers to conceptual thinkers.
Ontroerend Goed is Alexander Devriendt, Charlotte De Bruyne, Karolien De Bleser, Aurélie Lannoy, Leonore Spee, Samir Veen, Remi Cosijn, Wim Smet, Hannes Pieters, Luna Boone, Justine Boutens & Beth Thyrion.
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Credits //
Concept & creation: Alexander Devriendt, Karolien De Bleser, Samir Veen, Leonore Spee & Charlotte De Bruyne
Design: Nick Mattan & Edouard Devriendt
Production team: Lynn Van den Bergh, Leda Decleyre, Hannes Pieters
Editor (English): Tiffer Hutchings
Production: Ontroerend Goed
Coproduction: NTGent (BE); Stadttheater Schaffhausen (CH); Melbourne Fringe Festival (AU); Theatre Royal Plymouth (UK); Take Me Somewhere, Glasgow (UK); CCAM Scène Nationale de Vandœuvre (FR); IDFA, Amsterdam (NL); YOUNG Theatre, Shanghai (CN); Aranya Theater Festival (CN); Hexagone Scène Nationale, Meylan (FR); Le MAIF Social Club – Biennale Némo, Paris (FR); La Comédie de Clermont-Ferrand (FR); The Lowry, Salford (UK); Scène Nationale Carré-Colonnes, St. Médard (FR); RAMPE, Stuttgart (DE); The Zoom Arts Center, Seoul (KR); Hong Kong Arts Festival (HK); Cambridge Junction (UK); The Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb (HR); Théâtre La Mouche, Saint-Genis-Laval (FR); Nuovo Teatro Ateneo, Rome (IT); Gothenburg English Studio Theatre (SE); Perpodium, Antwerpen (BE)
With the support of: the Flemish Community, the city of Ghent, the Tax Shelter measures of the Belgian federal government & Cronos Invest. Many thanks to: Angelo Tijssens
