Anyone familiar with the work of the Flemish theater company Ontroerend Goed knows that the audience rarely gets a chance to sit back and relax. In their 2018 production £¥€$, the audience themselves became bankers in an overheated financial market. And 2010’s A Game of You was a confrontational, personalized theater-based game that held up a mirror to each spectator.
Their new piece, Handle with Care, reduces theater to its absolute essence. There are no actors and no technicians. Nor is there any scenery or director. There is only the audience—and a box. Using what they find inside the participants create their own performance. How the evening will unfold is completely unknown.
Ontroerend Goed’s work has been performed worldwide since 2007, and inspired remakes in French, Mandarin, Russian, and Kazakh. Handle With Care is premiering in several places simultaneously, connecting with audiences all over the world without being physically present.
Handle with Care is co-produced with IDFA DocLab & de Brakke Grond and premieres globally in October-November 2025, in partnership with festivals and theaters around the world.
