Die Before You Die

Discover Die Before You Die, the new theatre performance by Junior Mthombeni in KVS Brussels. Die Before You Die is a farewell. A resistance. An explosion.In his previous solo Vaderlandloos, Junior Mthombeni tried to rescue those who are lost. The ‘motherlandless’. People without a place, without roots, without a home. But let’s be honest: nobody has ever really arrived. So, what now? Now it’s time to die. Not literally, but to reject everything that no longer serves. The name Mthombeni? A thing of the past. A name that Junior’s family took on under colonial pressure. A name that disconnected him from his ancestors. He wants to go back to Moloi, the name that was taken from him. Moloi means healer. The blood in his veins. The truth that could not be spoken. Junior travels to South Africa to reclaim his name. And to Varanasi, the city in India where people go to die. Not to give up, but to release himself from everything that binds him. To investigate how you can die while you live. Now as a tourist. Not as a pilgrim. But as a maker. As a man. What has to die within a person to really live? This isn’t a ritual. Not a tower, not a circle, no soft voices whispering about transformation. Rituals are hip. Theatre full of smoke screens. Fuck that. This is a celebration. A party. A reckoning.Junior leaves the body behind and dances on it.