Prince K. Appiah is an actor, music artist and writer. He graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp in 2021. His studies include a 7-month stint at The Royal Conservatory of Scotland from 2018 to 2019. He has played in plays like Vrede Liefde & Vrijheid and Kiss & Ride from Het Nieuwstedelijk. He played the lead in the television miniseries De Shaq (2021). Following Funeral, Fight Night is the second production of Ontroerend Goed in which he can be seen.
Alexander Devriendt (°1977) is the artistic director and one of the founders of the Belgian theater performance group Ontroerend Goed. His past work includes the creation of the personal theater trilogy (The Smile Off Your Face, Internal & A Game of You), and the celebrated teenage play (Once, and for all, we’re going to tell you who we are so shut up and listen). His most recent productions are £¥€$, Funeral and Are we not drawn onward to a new era. His plays have won several awards and are performed all over the world, recently performing in Shanghai, USA and Edinburgh.
Photo Credit: Portretten Thomas Nolf
Aurélie Lannoy (°1982) trained in drama at the Institut des Arts de Diffusion in Louvain- la-Neuve (2000-2001) and in Lecoq techniques at Kleine Academie in Brussels (20012004). She studied acting studio techniques at the Susan Batson studio in New York (2010). In 2004 Aurélie joined Ontroerend Goed. She collaborates with them regularly as an actress, creator and performer and is a core member of the company. Alongside her work with OG, Aurélie works with other groups, notably the musical show groupLes Vedettes (2016) and the Parisian theater company Les Divins Animaux for the projects Flirt (2015), Les Perdants (2019) and Zoo (2021). On screen, Aurélie has featured as a lead character in Inacia (2013) by Charlotte Dupont, Lucha Libre (2014) by Ann Sirot and Raphael Balboni, and in Coupeur de route by Christophe Granger (2022).
Photo Credit: Portretten Thomas Nolf
Angelo Tijssens (°1986) studied theater in Antwerp. He has been part of Ontroerend Goed for a decade, both as a member of the artistic core and as a performer, with credits in Fight Night, are we not drawn onward to new erA, TM, A Game of You, Loopstation, Internal, £¥€$, Every Word Was Once an Animal and A History of Everything. He co-wrote several short films, with selections at the Cannes Film Festival and international awards. He was Lukas Dhont’s co-writer for the Camera d’Or winning feature film Girl. The film went on to be an international arthouse hit, winning awards all over the globe, such as the Queer Palm and a Golden Globe nomination. Together they also wrote Dhont’s second feature Close (2022), which was nominated for the Oscars. Meanwhile, he has become a member of The Academy, the body that sets the selection for the Oscars. At present, he is working on some new projects. His first novel, De Randen, was published in 2022, followed by his second Het einde van de straat in 2024.. Angelo Tijssens teaches scenario at KASK/School Of Arts in Ghent, and lives and works in Antwerp, with his husband and their cats.
Photo Credit: Portretten Thomas Nolf
Julia Ghysels (°1991) graduated in 2015 at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Antwerpen. During her studies, she performed in De zaak van de dieren tegen de mensen (2014) by HETPALEIS and Alsemkomt (2014) by de Roovers. After graduating, she was in production like ‘Othello’ (2015) by Toneelhuis and adult world (2015) by echo maker MT and Cie Covar. Her collaborations with Ontroerend Goed include Loopstation, £¥€$, Fight Night and TM. For director Jetse Batelaan she performed in Het eind van het begin van het einde (2020-2021). Her television credits include Gent-West (2017) and Fenix (2018). Since 2023, she’s a part of the ensemble of Het Zuidelijk Toneel.
Jonas Vermeulen (1990°) graduated in 2013 at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp. Fans of electronic punk and rock may know him from the band Psycho 44. He appeared in several tv-shows such as Red Light, Studio Tarara, Den 11e van den 11e and In Flanders Fields. In 2022 he made his debut on the big screen as the main character Frank Verstraeten in Robin Pront’s feature film Zillion. Jonas works most of the time in the theatre. With his own concert-theatre performances The Great Downhill Journey Of Little Tommy and The Only Way Is Up, which he created with partner in crime Boris Vanseveren, he toured around the globe. Jonas can frequently be seen as an actor and musician in the work of companies such as Ontroerend Goed, FC Bergman, Olympique Dramatique, Compagnie Marius, Hetpaleis and many others.
Michaël Pas has been acting prolifically in film, television and theater, since his
graduation from drama school in Antwerp, Belgium. Michaël is multilingual and performs
in Dutch, English, French and German. On stage he has worked with ITA director Ivo
Van Hove, and for film he collaborated with Lars Von Trier (Nymphomaniac II) and Lee
Tamahori (Emperor, starring Adrien Brody). ‘Are we not drawn onward to new erA’ was
Michaël’s first collaboration with Ontroerend Goed.
Bastiaan Vandendriessche obtained a masters degree in international political
sciences before studying Drama at the Conservatory of Antwerp (2017). With his controversial
debut De Fuut, he won the Best International Performance Award at Amsterdam Fringe
(2017). Afterwards he toured with the English translation through the UK. Later he created five more pieces (A White Man’s Burden, Mono, Mockingbird, Ode aan Buldegart, and Dorian). Ode aan Buldegart was nominated for the ‘Playwright award 2020’ and has been translated to French in 2022. As an actor, he has been working with Ontroerend Goed since 2017, performing in £¥€$, Fight Night, Are we not drawn onward to new Era and Every Word, Was Once an Animal. He also collaborated with 4hoog and KVS Brussels. In June 2024 he released his first auto fictional novel called Staart – Op korte en hopelijk erna lange
liefde.
“More than a decade on, Ontroerend Goed is no less exciting as a company but it has
matured, becoming more compassionate in the way it explores and uses intimacy. It
recognises a responsibility beyond the time spent in the theatre together.”
Lyn Gardner, The Stage The Belgian theatre-performance-group Ontroerend Goed (a punning name, roughly translated as “Feel Estate”) produces self-devised work grounded in the here and now, inviting their audiences to participate as well as observe. Whether they are performing backwards, turning spectators into voters who eliminate actors, guiding strangers through a labyrinth of mirrors and avatars to meet themselves, or placing the audience at the controls of the financial system, the company has made it its trademark to be unpredictable in content and form. They first emerged on the international scene in 2007, with The Smile Off Your Face, a one-on-one show in which the audience is tied to a wheelchair and then blindfolded. Their hit show Once and For All… was an uncompromising celebration of raw teenage energy on stage. Since then, the Belgian company has won numerous prizes across Europe and has hit New York, Berlin, Sydney, Singapore and London to critical acclaim. Ontroerend Goed tours worldwide and creates remakes of their productions in other languages: there are versions in Russian, French, Mandarin, Cantonese and Kazakh, among others. Ontroerend Goed delivers intense experiences built in the reality of theater. Convinced that life goes on during a performance, the group fabricates possible realities that question how we as individuals position ourselves in the world today. Led by artistic director Alexander Devriendt, the collective is convinced that every idea deserves its own brand of artistic expression, the company cherishes a sense of ownership for every single contributor to their work, from actors to light designers, scenographers to conceptual thinkers.
“A cross between Big Brother and an Italian general election.”
— The Independent, Paul Vallely
“Without even a single political reference, Ontroerend Goed’s ‘Fight Night’ makes a precarious analysis of the consensus politics our democratic system has fallen into. That’s impressive.”
— De Morgen, Evelyne Coussens
“Who the hell needs consensus politics if there’s a revolution to be had?”
— Total Theatre, Dorothy Max Prior