We can’t keep each other safe from harm
We’re alive but we can’t live forever
We can’t keep each other safe from harm
We’re alive but we can’t live forever
We can’t keep each other safe from harm
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
(Singer starts singing “We are going to die” in counterpoint to the rest of the Band)
BAND
SINGER
We’re gonna die
We are going to die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We are going to die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We are going to die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We are going to die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We are going to die
(As the Band finishes playing “We’re Gonna Die,” a dance remix track of the song fades up.
Drummer hits his cymbal and the others whip their heads to look at him and start rocking back and forth with the beat.
Drummer jumps up on his stool and does a solo dance with his drumsticks.
As Drummer continues to dance on the stool, Guitarist 2 and Guitarist 1 dance in place with their guitars while Singer and Bass Guitarist do a synchronized, floppy-handed, bunny-hop-like dance.
When they finish, Guitarist 1 and Guitarist 2 stride toward each other and embrace in a bear hug. They spin together and then separate while still holding their arms in the shape of the hug.
Guitarist 1 does an awkward solo dance, squatting and moving his knees like scissors while waving his hands wildly. He finishes with a spin and twists his arms like a flamenco dancer over his head as he looks out at the audience.
Drummer, flapping his arms in a swan-like manner, is carried on Bass Guitarist’s shoulders from his stool to the downstage area, where Guitarist 1 helps him down.
Singer and Guitarist 2 shake their butts in unison stage right and stage left, respectively, while Bass Guitarist and Drummer do a dance where they squat down in unison while Guitarist 1 pops up from behind them.
Everyone gets into a formation with Guitarist 1 in the center, and Singer and Guitarist 2 pumping their outside arms and legs on either side.
Singer and Guitarist 2 dive through Drummer and Bass Guitarist’s legs, respectively, then pop out between Drummer, Guitarist 1, and Bass Guitarist’s torsos for an instant before retreating back behind them.
Everyone spins around Guitarist 1 to create a five-person water-skiing pose.
Then, Guitarist 2 and Bass Guitarist make a human swing with their arms for Drummer, who swings back and forth in their arms like a kid on a swing set.
Meanwhile, Singer and Guitarist 1 hop to center with their arms outstretched in presentational diagonals. Singer and Guitarist 1 squat and shuffle in a tight circle around each other, while Guitarist 2, Bass Guitarist, and Drummer back them up with side-to-side clapping.
Everyone claps their way into a symmetrical formation and suddenly breaks into a synchronized dance of head turns and angular arm motions that ends with everyone holding hands in a line and rocking back and forth.
Guitarist 2, Bass Guitarist, Guitarist 1, and Drummer create a body-builder formation while Singer does push-ups off Bass Guitarist and Drummer’s knees, smiling at the audience.
Singer hops forward and everyone faces the audience in a line. The dance music fades out as everyone begins to sing an a cappella version of “We’re Gonna Die.”)
A CAPELLA I’M GONNA DIE
I’m gonna die
I’m gonna die someday
Then I’ll be gone
And it’ll be okay
I’m gonna die
I’m gonna die someday
Then I’ll be gone
And it’ll be okay
Someone will miss me
Someone will be so sad
And it’ll hurt
It’s gonna hurt so bad
Someone will miss me
Someone will be so sad
And it’ll hurt
It’s gonna hurt so bad
We’re alive but we can’t live forever
We can’t keep each other safe from harm
We’re alive but we can’t live forever
We can’t keep each other safe from harm
We’re alive but we can’t live forever
We can’t keep each other safe from harm
We’re alive but we can’t live forever
We can’t keep each other safe from harm
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
(Singer starts singing “We are going to die” in counterpoint to the rest of the Band)
BAND
SINGER
We’re gonna die
We are going to die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
(Singer encourages the audience to sing “We are going to die” in counterpoint to the melody sung by the Band)
(Speaking:)
Everybody!
(Back to singing:)
We’re gonna die
We are going to die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
(Speaking:)
I can’t hear you!
(Back to singing:)
We’re gonna die
We are going to die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
(Speaking:)
Good job!
(Back to singing:)
We’re gonna die
We are gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
(Speaking:)
Woo!
(Back to singing:)
We’re gonna die
We are going to die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
(Speaking:)
One more time!
(Back to singing:)
We are going to die
We are going to die
(Blackout.)
END OF PLAY
CHORD SHEETS
LULLABY FOR THE MISERABLE
I STILL HAVE YOU
COMFORT FOR THE LONELY
WHEN YOU GET OLD
HORRIBLE THINGS
I’M GONNA DIE
Singer starts singing “We are going to die” in counterpoint to the rest of the Band
BAND
SINGER
We’re gonna die
We are going to die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We are going to die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna to die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna die
We’re gonna to die
We’re gonna die
We are going die
We are going die
We are gonna die
We are going to die
YOUNG JEA
N LEE is a writer, director, and filmmaker who has been called “the most adventurous downtown playwright of her generation” by the New York Times and “one of the best experimental playwrights in America” by Time Out New York. She has written and directed ten shows in New York with Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company, and toured her work to more than thirty cities around the world. Her plays have been published by Theatre Communications Group (Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven and Other Plays, The Shipment and Lear, and We’re Gonna Die) and Samuel French (Three Plays). Her first short film, Here Come the Girls, was presented at the Locarno International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, and BAMcinemaFest. In 2013, she released her debut album, We’re Gonna Die, with her band Future Wife. Lee is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, two Obie Awards, a Prize in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a Doris Duke Artist Residency, a Foundation for Contemporary Arts grant, and the ZKB Patronage Prize of the Zürcher Theater Spektakel. She has also received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Rockefeller MAP Fund, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Creative Capital, the Green-wall Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Arts Presenters/Ford Foundation Creative Capacity Grant, the Barbara Bell Cumming Foundation, and the New England Foundation for the Arts: National Theater Project Award.
ALBUM CREDITS
TRACK LISTING
Monologues and SONGS
1.Uncle John (read by Adam Horovitz)
2.Emily & Jenny (read by Kathleen Hanna)
3.LULLABY FOR THE MISERABLE (Featuring Sarah Neufeld)
4.Family Reunion (read by Sarah Neufeld)
5.I STILL HAVE YOU
6.Henry (read by Martin Schmidt)
7.NO COMFORT FOR THE LONELY (Featuring Colin Stetson)
8.White Hair (read by Drew Daniel)
9.WHEN YOU GET OLD
10.Father (read by David Byrne)
11.Beth (read by Laurie Anderson)
12.HORRIBLE THINGS
13.Conclusion (read by Colin Stetson)
14.I’M GONNA DIE
Future Wife is Michael Hanf, Andrew Hoepfner, Nicholas M. Jenkins, Benedict Kupstas, and Young Jean Lee. Monologues and lyrics by Young Jean Lee. Music by Young Jean Lee and Tim Simmonds, except: “When You Get Old” by Young Jean Lee, Tim Simmonds, and Benedict Kupstas; “No Comfort for the Lonely” by Young Jean Lee, Tim Simmonds, Benedict Kupstas, and Future Wife. Monologuists: Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, Drew Daniel, Kathleen Hanna, Adam Horovitz, Sarah Neufeld, Martin Schmidt, and Colin Stetson. Additional musicians: Shannon Fields (various instruments on all songs), Sarah Neufeld (violin on “Lullaby for the Miserable”), and Colin Stetson (saxophones on “No Comfort for the Lonely”).
Produced by Shannon Fields at The Run-In (Jordanville, NY) and The Isokon (Woodstock, NY). Recorded, engineered, and mixed by D. James Goodwin at The Isokon. Vocals on “Horrible Things” recorded by Shannon Fields and Jonathan Kreinik at Midnight Sun (Brooklyn, NY). Additional instrumental overdubs recorded by Shannon Fields at The Run-In. Mastered by Nathan James at The Vault (New York, NY). Arrangements by Future Wife, Tim Simmonds, and Shannon Fields. String arrangements on “Lullaby for the Miserable” by Sarah Neufeld. Saxophone arrangements on “No Comfort for the Lonely” by Colin Stetson.
A project of Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company (Aaron Rosenblum, Producer).
Infinite gratitude: 13P, Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, Aurélie Charon, Bart Cortright, William Cusick, Evan “Funk” Davies, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Faye Driscoll, Eric Dyer, Paige Evans and all at LCT3, Mike Farry, Kate Gagnon, Morgan Gould, Caleb Hammons, Kathleen Hanna, Adam Horovitz, Jeff Janisheski and all at the O’Neill, Rachel Karp, Yuri Kwon, Paul Lazar and Big Dance Theater, Inn-Soo Lee, Jason Lee, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Lubov, TaraFawn Marek, Matmos, Nello McDaniel, Sarah Neufeld, Antje Oegel, Park Avenue Armory, Roxana Ramseur, Lou Reed, Aaron Rosenblum, Tim Simmonds, Sunny Stapleton, Booker Stardrum, Colin Stetson, Shanta Thake and all at Joe’s Pub, Virtual Label, Blake Zidell and Associates, John Zorn and all at the Stone, and all our families and friends.
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