Fringe favourite Ontroerend Goed have a longstanding fascination with the audience. In one-to-one encounters such as The Smile Off Your Face and Internal, they have put the spectator at the heart of their own drama, often to discombobulating effect. In the hall of mirrors of A Game of You, Alexander Devriendt’s company made you the unwitting star of someone else’s play, and in Audience, it tested the limits of what you deemed acceptable on stage.
Earnest commentators have fretted over the ethics of all this (me, I love the head-spinning thrill of it all), but even though Thanks for Being Here might raise similar questions about privacy and consent, it is done in such a spirit of communal joy, you would have to be unusually sensitive to object. Funny, accepting and warm-hearted, this celebration of the shared experience is the perfect festival show.
The joke, which becomes apparent only as the performance progresses, is that everything we are watching has been generated by the audience: either those of us here today or those who have seen it previously. As with Internal, which was a mix of speed-dating and group therapy, no performance is ever the same, being determined by the participants, even as the underlying structure is solid.
My audience played their parts consummately, instinctively understanding the rules of entering the auditorium, finding a seat, getting comfortable, puzzling over the performance, wondering if it could be improved and, no doubt, discussing it in the bar afterwards. It would be normal to credit the performers, Karolien De Bleser, Charlotte De Bruyne, Patricia Kargbo and Leonore Spee – and they do indeed bring a deliciously deadpan observational wit – but the real accolades go to all of us for being the show we demanded and for doing it so unselfconsciously. Darlings, we were marvellous.
At Zoo Southside, Edinburgh, until 24 August
