Handle With Care: The theatre show where the audience performs

A theatre performance with no actors, no directors, no sets, not even any lighting cues. Sounds strange, doesn’t it? In the middle of the room is a sealed cardboard box. For a while, nothing happens. Then someone stands up, walks forward, opens the box, and reads its contents out loud. Within minutes, strangers are up on their feet, talking and shuffling around, doing various tasks. This was Handle With Care, the latest work by Belgian theatre group Ontroerend Goed.

The show was brought to Bengaluru by Aaron Fernandes Entertainment on December 13 at Prestige Centre for Performing Arts. The show asks how far audiences will go when the only things they have are a box, a script, and, most importantly, themselves.

Aaron Fernandes

Out of the box

Often described as “theatre stripped to its essence”, Handle with Care replaces trained performances with whoever happens to turns up on the day of the show. Guided by letters, objects and instructions hidden inside the box, the audiences bring the work into being.

While the structure is tightly designed, who speaks, who hesitates and who takes the lead, is wholly dependent on the chemistry of that particular group. Needless to say, no two performances are the same.

CEO and founder Aaron Fernandes first encountered the work at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2024. “I was immediately struck by how unfamiliar and necessary the format felt,” he recalls. “A performance that only exists through audience participation challenges many assumptions we still hold about theatre.”

What stayed with him was its insistence on shared responsibility. “It asks people to listen, respond, and hold the experience together. That feels especially relevant in India now.”

Trust, consent and stepping forward

Given its trust-based format, careful framing is essential. “Participation is never compulsory,” Aaron emphasises. “People can enter the experience at their own pace, with real agency over how they engage.” Behind the scenes, Ontroerend Goed supported presenters with detailed documentation and global briefings, while local teams ensured the box and the surrounding experience was handled with care.

For artistic director Alexander Devriendt, the project began with a tricky question: “ Is it possible to create theatre this way?” The aim, as he explains it, was never to create a puzzle. “We make interactive theatre for people who don’t like interactive theatre. No one is forced into the spotlight.” Control is deliberately surrendered. “We are not even there. That is the scary part.”

Participants from the show

Alexander resists cultural stereotypes, noting that audiences everywhere share more similarities than differences. Even resistance, he says, is part of the design. “If you want to watch from the back seats and do nothing, that works too.”

For Aaron, Handle With Care was not a one-off staging. The strong response it garnered across cities has reinforced his belief that small, high-concept works can have deep impact. In a room where a cardboard box can turn a silent crowd into a temporary community, that future already feels quietly underway.