I Can Die Too

Jean Cocteau died on the same day as Édith Piaf, in September 1963. On hearing the news, he reportedly said, “La Piaf est morte. Je peux mourir aussi” - and did, hours later. It is a story of life imitating art with fatal precision, and the ideal starting point for this sharp, self-aware new work by Frances Ruffelle, Sally George, and the mercurial Alan Cumming. Set during a chaotic tech rehearsal, I Can Die Too watches its leading actress, Lily, attempt to perform a play inspired by Cocteau’s La Voix Humaine, the 1930 monodrama of a woman unravelling in a telephone call to her departing lover.