Drugs kept me alive

In the monologue Drugs kept me alive, Jan Fabre stages a character living on the edge of life. As he draws closer to death, he needs more and more pills and powders. His accomplices are ecstasy, poppers, amphetamines, and cocaine. At every moment, he is searching for eternal vertigo. Yet even while facing death, he clings to life and keeps looking for new ways to cheat the Grim Reaper. He explores every path, constantly pointing his compass toward shortcuts between heaven and hell. Speed is his weapon, and humour his remedy. Floating aboard his airship of ecstasy, he chooses for himself the mirages that attract him, even those that fill him with profound happiness. The play is full of contradictions and paradoxes: pills to survive and pills for intoxication, life suspended between euphoria and the abyss. Jan Fabre wrote Drugs kept me alive for Tony Rizzi, an American dancer and performer who was for many years part of Ballett Frankfurt under choreographer William Forsythe. It was during that period that he met Jan Fabre, with whom he has collaborated several times since, notably on Da un altra faccia del tempo, Glowing Icons, Histoire des larmes, and Orgy of tolerance.