A somewhat autobiographical tale of Hmong parents, death and ghosts.   

As Australia careened from deadly bushfires to the beginning of COVID-19, and as Hmong-Australian writer Michele Lee was working on Asian ghost TV shows, she rang her parents for 30 minutes each day.??  

Lee wanted to figure out how to talk to them about death: their death, the deaths they’ve endured here and in Laos, the Hmong perspective on death. In asking herself, ‘How do I let my parents die on their terms?’ Lee sought to reconcile vast emotional, cultural and geographical distances.??  

How Do I Let You Die? assembles an extraordinary team of Asian-Australian artists to weave together phone calls, Asian ghost tropes, Hmong horror stories, and the simple potency of an adult child coming to terms with a parent’s eventual death.?  

As moments of acute and layered crisis bring mortality achingly close, this charming and tender work of theatre offers moments of humour and nuance, and moments of contradiction, to wonder on our approaches to this life and the next. ? 

?‘Lee shows herself to have a keen eye, a wicked sense of humour, and a willingness to take the piss out of herself. It’s a voice that is distinctly Australian, while working simultaneously to complicate just what it means to be a contemporary Australian.’?– The Conversation (on Going Down (2018), Malthouse Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company)? 

‘Michele’s writing is relevant and critical, and it’s art like this that helps to shift things, even a little bit, in the right direction.’?– Plus Ones (on Security (2022), Darebin Speakeasy, Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre)?