Je Veux Mourir Sur Scène

What’s on the mind of the Bernese audience and if I find out, how do I write a piece about that? What kind of text will come out – will it be a comedy or a tragedy? By engaging in conversation, actors and spectators of Konzert Theater Bern collectively generated text material on topics such as work, passion and death. All of those conversations were recorded to draw a picture of today's post-privacy society: Will my Facebook profile outlast me? Is my job worth a burnout? And would I like to have done things differently in my life? A stage with a life of its own and three actors give a new home to these recorded conversations. The theatre turns into a tragicomic memorial space, filled with fleeting flashes of what haunts us, we who ride on trains together, we who shop together, we who observe each other online or while squinting into the sun. 

"Je veux mourir sur scène" (engl. „I want to die on stage“) is a song by egyptian-french singer Dalida. Might this song, written in 1983, give some answers as to why we so willingly participate in today’s post-privacy era? In "Je veux mourir sur scène“ the search for recognition through sacrifice and self-surrender culminates in the fantasy of our own death in the spotlight, to the applause of an enthusiastic crowd.