Doodgraag (Dying to live), a play about living and dying with dignity

Met Doodgraag bring Danni Heylen and Hans Van Cauwenberghe a performance that places the spectator in the middle of one of the most fundamental human questions: how do we want to live and how do we want to die? The huisvandeMens, Vermeylenfonds, Willemsfonds, Humanistisch Verbond, and LEIF invite you to come and experience this poignant piece and reflect together on autonomy, dignity, and saying goodbye.\n\nA war reporter has seen children die of hunger, seen people shot dead, and looked death in the eye several times himself. But nothing hits him as deeply as his mother's resolute choice for euthanasia.\n\n'A person wants to live with dignity, so a person also wants to die with dignity,' she says, while he struggles with disbelief, grief, and powerlessness.\n\nA special cast makes this production extra unique:\nDanni Heylen, as the mother, in a rarely seen, layered dramatic role.\nHans Van Cauwenberghe, as the son who endured the war, but not the gentle determination of his mother.\n\nDoodgraag is a raw, intimate, and lifelike conversation between a son and his mother, about loving life and loving death. About how close death only really gets when it enters your own house. Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes disarmingly witty, always relentlessly honest. This piece not only wants to move, but also to spark the social conversation about euthanasia, with a broad audience, from policymakers and care professionals to loved ones, in collaboration with civil society organizations.\n\nDoodgraag is based on Memoires vol leven en dood by journalist Patrick Van Gompel, who turned his personal loss into a story that not only moves, but also invites reflection. The piece touches on themes that many recognize: the fear of letting go, the desire to be allowed to decide for oneself, and the search for humanity when life becomes fragile.\n\nThis performance is programmed together with the Stad Halle and CC 't Vondel.\n\nTickets via the website of CC 't Vondel.