Reviewed by:

• We’re Gonna Die by Young Jean Lee
• Benjamin Gillespie

“No one is immune from tragedy.” Perhaps there is no other moment in recent history where this sentiment would ring as true. As it happens, the ubiquity of human tragedy is a central conceit of Young Jean Lee’s genre-defying performance, We’re Gonna Die, which opened off-Broadway in February 2020 and closed just days before New York (and much of the country) would go into lockdown. Who could have contemplated tragedy on such a scale? Little did we know that, in just a few weeks, theatre venues would close their doors to live performance for more than a year. In that year, the COVID-19 pandemic death toll reached over 500,000 in the United States and millions globally, making Lee’s work more prescient than ever.

True to form, this anti-tragedy of sorts thwarts the promise of catastrophe and its resultant catharsis, following Lee’s characteristically unpredictable style of writing. In place of traditional dramatic narrative, We’re Gonna Die embraces an episodic structure that combines music, dance, and storytelling in what could be described as a theatricalized concert experience—a genre not unfamiliar to New York [End Page 245] audiences, especially those who saw David Byrne’s American Utopia, which ran concurrently on Broadway (and is reviewed in December 2020’s Theatre Journal). Performed in under sixty minutes, the production packed an emotionally heavy punch as six loosely connected monologues given by a narrator dubbed the “Singer” (Janelle McDermoth) recounted tragic stories of chronic and acute illness, declining health with age, deteriorating relationships, and unbearable loneliness. These stories were punctuated by powerful rock-infused tunes that offered life-affirming, even humorous moments of collective release. In short, the production staged a public gathering around tragic events, while replacing acts of mourning with a celebration of the perseverance of humanity in the face of immense pain and death.

Kevin Ramessar, Debbie Christine Tjong, Janelle McDermoth, and Freddy Hall in We’re Gonna Die, 2020. (Photo: Joan Marcus.)

Despite its provocative title, We’re Gonna Die is not a performance that ruminates on death. Instead, the performance foregrounded the inevitability of life after death. Described appropriately in the promotional materials as a “non-musical/non-play/ non-concert that is not about dying,” it actively avoided plot and character development, instead cohering around the figure of the singer who led her band members by reciting each monologue and then performing songs in counterpoint to the spoken text. The monologues are centered upon moments of grief, beginning with childhood and transgressing to romantic and family heartbreak in young adulthood to old age, thus reflecting tragedy across the life course. For instance, one monologue detailed the solemn life of a socially inept uncle, while another described a horrific story of a close friend ripping out her cornea in a freak accident after the discovery that her lover had been cheating. Inspired by the loss of Lee’s own father, the lengthiest monologue explored the premature death of the singer’s father to cancer, which we find out might have been avoided if he had access to proper medical treatment. The monologues were dispersed between songs that served to elevate the emotional effect of these stories while consciously avoiding sentimentality. The band members, dressed in hip punk-rock costumes, were an integral part of the production, as they frequently interacted with the singer not only vocally, but also through dance sequences (choreographed by director Raja Feather Kelly) and audience interaction, especially during the production’s finale. As Lee writes in the script: “All of the stories in this show are true, but not all of them happened to me . . . the show is designed for anyone to be able to perform as themselves without adopting a theatrical persona.” Unlike more conventional features of tragedy, in this performance, pain was supplanted with new forms of hope and a public reckoning with grief. While recognizing that pain is part...

审核人：

• 我们要死了，年轻的让·李
• 本杰明·吉莱斯皮

“没有人能免于悲剧。” 也许在近代历史上没有其他时刻可以让这种情绪听起来如此真实。碰巧的是，无处不在的人类悲剧是 Young Jean Lee 的反流派表演的核心自负，我们要死了，该表演于 2020 年 2 月在百老汇外开幕，并在纽约（以及美国大部分地区）前几天关闭将进入锁定状态。谁能想到如此大规模的悲剧？我们几乎不知道，在短短几周内，剧院场地将关闭一年多的现场表演。在那一年，COVID-19 大流行的死亡人数在美国达到了 500,000 多人，在全球达到了数百万人，这使 Lee 的工作比以往任何时候都更有先见之明。

与形式一样，这种反悲剧在某种程度上挫败了灾难的承诺及其导致的宣泄，遵循李的典型不可预测的写作风格。代替传统的戏剧叙事，《我们要死了》采用了一种将音乐、舞蹈和讲故事结合在一起的情节结构，可以将其描述为戏剧化的音乐会体验——纽约[End Page 245]观众并不陌生的一种流派，尤其是那些看过大卫·伯恩 (David Byrne) 的美国乌托邦( American Utopia) 的人，该剧同时在百老汇上演（并在 2020 年 12 月的Theatre Journal 上进行了评论））。在不到 60 分钟的时间内演出，这部作品在情感上充满了沉重的打击，因为一位被称为“歌手”（珍妮尔·麦克德莫斯）的叙述者讲述了六个松散连接的独白，讲述了慢性和急性疾病的悲惨故事，随着年龄的增长，健康状况下降，关系恶化，以及无法忍受孤独。这些故事被强有力的摇滚乐曲打断，这些曲调提供了肯定生命，甚至是集体释放的幽默时刻。简而言之，这部作品围绕悲剧事件举办了一场公众集会，同时用对人类面对巨大痛苦和死亡的毅力的庆祝代替了哀悼。

Kevin Ramessar、Debbie Christine Tjong、Janelle McDermoth 和 Freddy Hall 在我们即将死去，2020 年。（照片：Joan Marcus。）

尽管标题具有挑衅性，但《我们要死》并不是一场沉思死亡的表演。相反，业绩前景化生活的必然性后死亡。在宣传材料中被恰当地描述为“非音乐/非戏剧/非音乐会，不会死亡”，它积极避免情节和角色发展，而是围绕着带领乐队成员的歌手背诵的形象每个独白，然后表演与口语文本相对应的歌曲。独白以悲伤的时刻为中心，从童年开始，到青年到老年的浪漫和家庭心碎，从而反映了整个生命过程中的悲剧。例如，一个独白详细描述了一个社交无能的叔叔的严肃生活，而另一个则描述了一个可怕的故事，一个密友在发现她的爱人出轨后，在一场怪异的事故中撕裂了她的角膜。受到李的父亲去世的启发，最长的独白探讨了歌手的父亲因癌症过早死亡，我们发现如果他能够获得适当的治疗，这可能是可以避免的。独白分散在歌曲之间，以提升这些故事的情感效果，同时有意识地避免多愁善感。身着嘻哈朋克摇滚服装的乐队成员是制作中不可或缺的一部分，因为他们经常与歌手互动，不仅是在声音上，而且还通过舞蹈序列（由导演 Raja Feather Kelly 编排）和观众互动，尤其是在演出期间制作的结局。正如李在剧本中所写：“这个节目中的所有故事都是真实的，但并非所有故事都发生在我身上。. . 该节目旨在让任何人都可以在不采用戏剧角色的情况下表演自己。与悲剧的传统特征不同，在这场表演中，痛苦被新形式的希望和公众对悲伤的清算所取代。虽然认识到疼痛是一部分...