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.

This performance will have a BSL Interpreter on 23 October. The unpredictable, improvised and participatory nature of this performance means each audience member will have a unique experience. To reflect this, Ali will accompany BSL users through the show and translate their individual interactions.

Handle With Care is performed entirely by the audience, with option for refusal.

SENSORY NOTES

• Unpredictable or Sudden Sound

• Unpredictable or Sudden Action

• Overlapping Sounds or Speaking
  

Language: English (written & spoken)

Venues and Seating:

Main Theatre, Platform, Easterhouse (Entrance from Ground floor). Wheelchair accessible by Lift. Platform venue access information. 

Seating: Seating Bank with flip down, padded seats with arms. 1 row step free. Wheelchair spaces available to reserve via Platform Box Office

Main Theatre, The Boardwalk  Wheelchair Accessible by Lift. Hearing Loop. The Boardwalk access information.

Seating: Seating Bank with individual chairs, padded seats without arms. 1 row step free. Wheelchair spaces available to reserve via Take Me Somewhere support@takemesomewhere.co.uk 

Visit our Festival Access Page.

• Discussion of Death & Dying 

• Audience Participation 

• Audience Interaction

• Brief reference to Alcohol & Drinking

The participatory nature of this performance means some content may be unknown in advance. Audiences can leave and re-enter throughout the performance.

Artist Bio

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.

Credits

Concept & creation: Alexander Devriendt, Karolien De Bleser, Samir Veen, Leonore Spee & Charlotte De Bruyne
Design: Nick Mattan & Edouard Devriendt
Voices: Silvio Vork (HR), Jong Wook Yang (KR), Gina Beuk (DE), Karolien De Bleser, Leonore Spee, Samir Veen, Charlotte De Bruyne, Aurélie Lannoy, Alexander Devriendt, i.a.
Translation: Martine Bom (FR), Aurélie Lannoy (FR), Samir Veen (EN), Tiffer Hutchings (editor EN), Lore Meesters (DE), Hong Zhan (CN), Tai Yin Chang (CN), Mima Simic (HR), Dayoung Jeong (KR), Andrea Romano (IT), i.a.
Production team: Leda Decleyre, Lynn Van den Bergh, Willie-Marie Hermans & Hannes Pieters
Assembly: Jana Vos, Emma Verhaegen, Roos-Marie De Schryver, Juta Donckers
Photography: Ans Brys & Joëlle Desmet
Video: Aaron Denolf

Production: Ontroerend Goed

Coproduction: NTGent (BE); Stadttheater Schaffhausen (CH); Melbourne Fringe (AU); Theatre Royal Plymouth (UK); Take Me Somewhere, Glasgow (UK); CCAM Scène Nationale de Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy (FR); IDFA, Amsterdam (NL); De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam (NL); YOUNG Theatre, Shanghai (CN); Hexagone Scène Nationale, Meylan (FR); MAIF Social Club – Biennale Némo, Paris (FR); La Comédie de Clermont-Ferrand (FR); Lowry, Salford (UK); Scène Nationale Carré-Colonnes, Saint-Médard-en-Jalles (FR); Theater RAMPE, Stuttgart (DE); The Zoom Arts Center, Seoul (KR); Hong Kong Arts Festival (HK); Cambridge Junction (UK); The Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb (HR); La Mouche, Saint-Genis-Laval (FR); Sapienze CREA, 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, Wouter Lambrechts, zwartopwit, Speelkaartenmuseum / Rock Paper Pencil, Turnhout

This presentation is made possible with the support of Impact Arts.