Audience @ St George's West

The notion of the audience as a performer, and a willing participant in a performance, is the main message of Ontroerend Goed’s aptly-titled new work, Audience. Using a range of techniques, such as humiliation, degradation, music and film, this show takes the audience out of their respective comfort zones and puts them in a potentially dangerous situation: in the hands of the performers themselves.

Starting with an embarrassing, but otherwise bearable feature where the audience is filmed, and a live feed projected onto a screen on stage, the play quickly descends into much more cruel and incredibly vindictive behaviour. As the performers give a lesson on how to clap, a female audience member is sexually intimidated and victimised by a lone performer who tells them to open their legs, which sets the tone for a show that delights in making the audience feel uncomfortable.

Internationally acclaimed for their body of work, which includes Teenage Riot! Internal and Once And For All We're Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up And Listen, Audience continues their tradition of getting the audience involved in the performance, and making them feel uncomfortable. But while it’s clear from the very beginning that Ontroerend Goed want the audience to be more than impassive, and want them to feel something real, which they do manage to do, their methods are not only unusual, but also very dangerous, as it leaves the audience feeling like their opinion didn’t matter.

Although the audience become very aware that they are indeed merely pawns, the show encourages them to react, but only in certain ways, and these are the reactions that the company are prepared for. Unfortunately, they cannot cope with unpredictable reactions, they are unprepared for different reactions from the audience, which is not only immature, but also arrogant. In any performance the audience is vitally important, so by alienating the audience and insulting them, they display a lack of respect for them, which undermines their show. Underneath the insults and the vile language lies a play with so much to offer everyone that sees it, but this message is let down by Ontroerend Goed’s insistence on abuse and rudeness.