Handle with Care, at Trades Hall, as part of Melbourne Fringe Festival

It is chaotic and a bit of fun and nonsense.

A room full of people has signed up for a show titled Handle with Care.

It is the work of internationally renowned, interactive, Flemish theatre company Ontroerend Goed.

As one enters the space assigned to this offering, I couldn’t help but notice a medium sized sealed box on the platform stage.

With no actors or technicians, we are it. We are in charge for an hour.

It is up to us to start proceedings. That happens when all of us have read the same message, printed on a business card and placed on each seat, and one of us acts upon it.

In short, someone opens the box.

All the instructions and paraphernalia pertaining to this work are contained within it.

We are given access to string, masking tape, pens, clothes pegs, scissors and more.

We will interact with others – write and talk. Some will dance and sing.

It will be a wild ride, in which the audience takes a collegiate approach.

There are 10 scenes to play out, including one where all assembled take to the small stage and act upon individual instructions.

Mine were to write a message to the work’s designers – something I would like to share with other shows – that I would later read out aloud.

This task was given to me in a section of the piece that was deliberately disruptive.

People were moving and speaking and doing, seemingly at cross purposes.

There is bemusement and smiles, as all take to their assigned roles with purpose.

Somehow it all comes together.

Clearly, every show is different. The experience I had is one I shared with the group I was with. Tomorrow’s may have a different dynamic.

Members of my group were not backward in coming forward. They were proactive and dynamic, happy to play along, which was a good thing.

There were some awkward silences as the left hand didn’t seem to know what the right hand was doing. But that was all in keeping with the structure of this undertaking.

What does it all mean? It is a participatory exercise in togetherness, of trust and respect for people you have never met before.

Handle with Care is on at the Archive Room in Trades Hall until 19th October, 2025.