13-23 nov 2025
EN/NL
Donate
Handle with Care
Program
Handle with Care
DocLab

Handle with Care

Ontroerend Goed, Alexander Devriendt
Belgium
2025
60 min
World Premiere
IDFA DocLab Program & Competition
Synopsis

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

Read more
Credits
60 min
-
-
Spoken languages: Dutch, English
Director
    Ontroerend Goed,
    Alexander Devriendt
    Ontroerend Goed,
    Alexander Devriendt
Created by
    Leonore Spee for Ontroerend Goed,
    Samir Veen for Ontroerend Goed,
    Charlotte De Bruyne for Ontroerend Goed,
    Karolien De Bleser for Ontroerend Goed
    Leonore Spee for Ontroerend Goed,
    Samir Veen for Ontroerend Goed,
    Charlotte De Bruyne for Ontroerend Goed,
    Karolien De Bleser for Ontroerend Goed
Key collaborator
    The Flemish Community ,
    The City of Ghent,
    The Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government,
    Cronos Invest
    The Flemish Community ,
    The City of Ghent,
    The Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government,
    Cronos Invest
Production
    Ontroerend Goed
    Ontroerend Goed
Co-production
    Ontroerend Goed,
    NTGent,
    Perpodium,
    Stadttheater Schaffhausen,
    Melbourne Fringe,
    Theatre Royal Plymouth,
    Take Me Somewhere,
    CCAM Scène Nationale de Vandœuvre,
    IDFA,
    YOUNG Theatre,
    De Brakke Grond,
    Hexagone Scène Nationale,
    MAIF Social Club – Biennale Némo,
    La Comédie de Clermont-Ferrand,
    Lowry,
    Scène Nationale Carré-Colonnes,
    Theater RAMPE,
    The Zoom Arts Center,
    Hong Kong Arts Festival ,
    Cambridge Junction,
    The Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb,
    La Mouche,
    Nuovo Teatro Ateneo,
    Gothenburg English Studio Theatre
    Ontroerend Goed,
    NTGent,
    Perpodium,
    Stadttheater Schaffhausen,
    Melbourne Fringe,
    Theatre Royal Plymouth,
    Take Me Somewhere,
    CCAM Scène Nationale de Vandœuvre,
    IDFA,
    YOUNG Theatre,
    De Brakke Grond,
    Hexagone Scène Nationale,
    MAIF Social Club – Biennale Némo,
    La Comédie de Clermont-Ferrand,
    Lowry,
    Scène Nationale Carré-Colonnes,
    Theater RAMPE,
    The Zoom Arts Center,
    Hong Kong Arts Festival ,
    Cambridge Junction,
    The Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb,
    La Mouche,
    Nuovo Teatro Ateneo,
    Gothenburg English Studio Theatre
Cinematography
    Karolien De Bleser,
    Charlotte De Bruyne,
    Leonore Spee,
    Samir Veen
    Karolien De Bleser,
    Charlotte De Bruyne,
    Leonore Spee,
    Samir Veen
World Sales
    Beth Thyrion for Ontroerend Goed
    Beth Thyrion for Ontroerend Goed
Distribution for the Netherlands
    Beth Thyrion for Ontroerend Goed
    Beth Thyrion for Ontroerend Goed
Screening copy
    Hannes Pieters for Ontroerend Goed
    Hannes Pieters for Ontroerend Goed

Stills

0
0
1
2
0
1
2
More from the program section IDFA DocLab Program & Competition
IDFA DocLab: Off the Internet explores the paradox of our time: the growing desire to disconnect, the impossibility of ever truly logging off, and the inherent privilege of stepping offline. With Off the Internet, DocLab turns to interactive and immersive art in search of new forms of presence and connection.
View program section
Handle with Care

Handle with Care

DocLab
Ontroerend Goed, Alexander Devriendt
2025
60 min