Die Before You Die, Junior Mthombeni (SOCHA) — theater arsenaal, KVS and Moussem

Die Before You Die is a farewell. A resistance. An explosion. With his previous solo performance Vaderlandloos (Fatherlandless), Junior Mthombeni tried to save the lost. The fatherlandless. People without a place, without roots, without a home. But let's be honest: no one has ever really arrived. So what now? Now it is time to die. Not literally, but to shed everything that no longer works. The name Mthombeni? Past tense. A name that Junior's family received under colonial coercion. A name that detached him from his ancestors. He wants to return to Moloi, the name that was taken from him. Moloi means healer. The blood in his veins. The truth that was not allowed to sound. Junior travels to South Africa to reclaim his name. And to Varanasi (India), the city where people go to die. Not to give up, but to detach themselves from everything that binds them. To look: how do you die while you live? Not as a tourist. Not as a pilgrim. But as a maker. As a man. What must die in a person to truly live? This is not a ritual. No tower, no circle, no soft voices whispering about transformation. Rituals are hip. Theater full of incense. Fuck that. This is a celebration. A party. A reckoning. Junior leaves the corpse behind and dances on it.