Thanks for Being Here is an ode to the audience. Because without an audience, there is no theatre. The fact that you are now reading this text, perhaps buying a ticket (or already have!), and will soon spend an hour in a room full of strangers, not knowing what’s to come – we find that deeply hopeful. And that is 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.
In a game of video and perspective, Thanks for Being Here constantly puts you off balance. But don’t worry — you don’t have to do anything. Because Ontroerend Goed has been making interactive theatre for over 20 years for people who don’t particularly like interactive theatre. And we’ll take your expectations into account. Both before and after. Promise.
Selection Wijkjury Het Theaterfestival 2024
‘How we take our ‘outside’ with us ‘inside’, how we prepare ourselves for the transition from reality to imagination, how that transition phase shimmers with utopian potential - that is beautiful. That is what this ‘thank you’ to the audience is ultimately about: the recognition of the political potential of a theatre hall. (...) But it is certain that our collective presence there, in all its diversity of perspectives, is a source of change. And this realisation is radically hopeful.’
'It was more about reproducing, on a much bigger, collective scale, Marina Abramović's 'The Artist Is Present'. Being part of something you choose to be in, without necessarily choosing to be part of, that left you much more displaced and much more present to yourself.'
'Seeing ourselves as others see us has rarely felt so illuminating. Thanks to the accidental stars of the show, this one will run and run.'
'Yet given our current obsession with war and conflict – and our growing tendency to normalise it as inevitable – I guess that the study of peace, tolerance and conviviality, and the forces that enable it, has to begin somewhere. Theatre is as good a place as any to start that journey; and as ever, Ontroerend Goed present their thoughts with such professionalism and poetry, and such a beautiful low-key integrity, that their vision becomes irresistible.'
‘A wry and entertaining embrace of experimentation.’
‘It is not perfection that draws us in, but the humanity of sharing a room with the artists, being part of the shaping of an idea, and recognising the beauty in imperfection. It may take the full hour to grasp the meaning of that exchange, but when the understanding arrives, the reward is as rich as theatre can offer.’
'Ontroerend Goed perfectly pinpoints what’s so great about live performance'
‘As in Audience (2011), Ontroerend Goed makes the audience the main subject of the piece. But unlike that controversial performance about the danger of the (silent) masses, it is striking how loving and generous the approach is this time. (...) A smash hit.’
'Thanks For Being Here is an exhilarating reminder that theatre’s most radical gesture can sometimes be its simplest: to acknowledge, fully and without irony, the people sitting in the dark.'
‘Darlings, we were marvellous’
'We are here together and our emotions, hopes and desires are all here too. We brought everything we needed into the theatre. We leave knowing we performed our part flawlessly. We are the audience and that is enough.'
‘you get the show your particular audience deserves’