We're Gonna Die is a 2011 American play by Young Jean Lee.
We're Gonna Die was first produced at Joe's Pub, closing in April 2011.
Young Jean Lee performed the solo role, accompanied by the band Future Wife.
[3][4] Future Wife's debut album, We’re Gonna Die was released August 6, 2013.
It features members of various New York projects, including David Byrne, Laurie Anderson, Adam Horovitz, Kathleen Hanna, Sarah Neufeld, Colin Stetson, Drew Daniel and Martin Schmidt of Matmos, Cloud Becomes Your Hand, San Fermin, Field Guides, and Landlady, in monologue and musical roles.
[5][4] In August 2015, a production was part of David Byrne's Meltdown takeover series at Southbank Centre in London.
[6][7] In 2020, an Off-Broadway production of the show by Second Stage Theater was directed and choreographed by Raja Feather Kelly.
It opened in Tony Kiser Theater on February 4 and was scheduled to run through March 22.
We’re Gonna Die begins with Young Jean Lee telling a story on stage with her band along with her.
Just some really sort of ordinary comforting things that have somehow managed to make me feel a little better when I was in that really lonely isolated place.
And I’m sharing them with you in the hopes that they might help you feel less lonely when you’re in pain.” (Family Reunion) As a child, Lee’s Uncle John was “...the most isolated person I ever knew.” (Uncle John) One day Lee hid under his bed while he brushed his teeth and planned to scare him by grabbing his ankles.
When Uncle John walked in he sat down at a desk and started muttering to himself, “I’m a piece shit.
Lee then goes on to talk about a “public mask” that people wear to hide the pain.
One day they decided to teach Lee how to ride a bike and she ended up bleeding from all her joints.
One day at school during recess Lee came up to them and they all ran away from her, making it very clear that she was not supposed to chase after them.
When she had noticed that half of the books from the bookshelf, they were Henry’s, were missing she had realized that she now lived alone.
“When you get old all your friends will die and you will be a burden to the world.”(When You Get Old) Lee’s father was diagnosed with advanced stage lung cancer and only had a year and a half to live.
They asked a doctor to just give them the medication but legally he could not because it wasn’t guaranteed that it would work on him.
One night while Lee slept at the hospital her father woke up in a panic trying to rip out the tube that was down his throat, feeding him oxygen.
The next morning the blood sample came back confirming her father’s genetic mutation, but he passed away that afternoon.