Thanks for Being Here

Thanks for Being Here is a celebration of our temporary togetherness. Of all of us, here, in this space. We will celebrate each and every one of you, with your reality and perspective. We will try to see through your eyes. We may swap roles. But although we are present together, we cannot truly understand all these different points of view.

Thanks for Being Here is an acknowledgment of the impossibility of seeing from a shared perspective. And precisely within this impossibility lies the magic of a joint experience — a collective journey akin to a shared hallucination. A celebration of all perspectives present. So… thanks for being here.

Thanks for Being Here is a performance about the way we look at things. In a game of perspectives, Ontroerend Goed will make the audience experience the boundaries of a shared perspective. Because our points of view are influenced by the context we live in, the media we consume, and the social circles we frequent. Maybe true understanding even lies in realizing that we might never fully understand each other. And that it is fine.

After Funeral, Thanks for Being Here is the second performance by Ontroerend Goed on the celebration of life. This time, there’s nothing to mourn, only a celebration of a multitude of realities.

‘Only when we combine complementary views of the same reality do we gain broader access to the knowledge of things. The more complex what we want to understand is, the more important it is to have multiple pairs of eyes so that we can converge those beams of light and perceive through the multiple the One.’

The Blind Light – Benjamin Labatut

www.ontroerendgoed.be

Awards

• 2023: 8 Fringe First Awards and a nomination for a Total Theatre Award on Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Reviews

Everyone is seen here: the performance ‘Thanks for Being’ Here offers a sweet ode to the audience  ★★★★☆, NRC (in Dutch)

With ‘Thanks for being here’ Ontroerend Goed highlights precisely wat is so nice about live ★★★★☆, de Volkskrant (in Dutch)

Radically hopeful: the audience becomes performer in ‘Thanks for Being Here’ ★★★★☆, deMorgen (in Dutch)