Following last season’s Handle with Care, a theatre piece in a box, Belgium-based Ontroerend Goed return to the Nuffield Theatre with their new show that flips the relationship between performer and audience.
Thanks for Being Here is an ode to the audience. Because without one, there is no theatre. The fact that you are now reading this text, perhaps buying a ticket, and will soon spend an hour in a room full of strangers, not knowing what’s to come – we find that deeply hopeful. And worth celebrating.
On stage: us. In the audience: you. We will watch. Ourselves, but especially each other, as a group. We’ll switch roles. Maybe you’ll see yourself, as part of the audience, or even as a character. Without you, there would be no performance. So thank you for being here.
Ontroerend Goed (a punning name, roughly translated as “Feel Estate”) has been creating interactive theatre for over 20 years for people who don’t particularly like interactive theatre, and they will take your expectations into account. They produce self-devised work grounded in the here and now, inviting audiences to participate as well as observe, and have received multiple awards from festivals across Europe, Australia and North America.
This is one of only two performances of this work in the UK this year.
‘Radically hopeful’
De Morgen, ★★★★
‘Ontroerend Goed perfectly pinpoints the charm of live performance. Gently, without any forceful gesture, it creates an ode to the very existence of the audience.’
De Volkskrant, ★★★★
Age: 14+
Content: Audiences will be filmed, but the videos will not be used
Credit: Kurt Van der Elst
