Essay on Dying

Theatre
independent production
2019

“A radical and at the same time tender text.”
— BR – Bayrischer Rundfunk

“That's theatre at its lowest point. But it is precisely in this radicalism that the pathos of this evening emerges.”
— bz

“Starting from the story of his father's death, Boris Nikitin comes to very far-reaching and reflective thoughts about the relationship between inside and outside, about how we construct the world and what it does to us.”
— SRF – Schweizer Rundfunk

“Three years after his father's death, the Basel theatremaker tears down the fourth wall between himself and his subjects.”
— Basler Zeitung

“Thus the very private becomes social and this theater performance political. The performer penetrates so deeply, self-critically, analytically, but also simply and lovingly into his intimate, individual life that he opens the view to questions that we usually avoid.”
— Jury Schweizer Theatertreffen

“A sober, raw play in which heart and head wrestle with each other. (...) It is partly these small but brilliant theatrical interventions that make Attempt on Dying not only a dramaturgically clever, but also a moving and emotional solo. You are inexorably drawn into its narrative. Nikitin manages to strike the perfect balance between authenticity and theatricality.”
— theaterkrant.nl

“We learn to live by dying, Nikitin seems to be telling us in this sober yet fascinating monologue.”
— Volkskrant

Events

- 23 + 24 March 2024
- - Théâtre Vidy Lausanne
- 9 March 2024
- - EEEY! - Festival, La Paz
- 26 October 2023
- - Mapa Teatro, Bogotá
- 14 + 15 September 2023
- - Goethe Institut, Salvador
- 11 August 2023
- - Galeria Vermelho, Sao Paulo, Festival Verbo
- 9 August 2023
- - Galeria Vermelho, Sao Paulo, Festival Verbo
- 28 July 2023
- - Pinacoteca do Cereà, Fortaleza, Festival Verbo
- 25 June 2023
- - Biennale Teatro, Venedig
- 13 May 2023
- - Bern / Schlachthaus
  - Festival "auawirleben"
- 25 March 2023
- - Kaserne Basel
- 17 March 2023
- - HAU – Hebbel am Ufer Berlin
- 15 March 2023
- - HAU – Hebbel am Ufer Berlin
- 10 + 11 March 2023
- - Schwankhalle Bremen
- 28 February 2023
- - Festival FIBA Buenos Aires
- 26 February 2023
- - Festival FIBA Buenos Aires
- 8 + 9 November 2022
- - Frascati Amsterdam
- 28 + 29 June 2022
- - National Forest Festival Thessaloniki
- 15 April 2022
- - Tagung der Theologischen Fakultät Basel
- 21 + 22 March 2022
- - Università Statale de Milano
  - Lecture
- 18 + 19 March 2022
- - Théatre de Vidy
- 3 + 4 December 2021
- - NET Festival, Moskau
- 25 + 26 June 2021
- - Festspielhaus Hellerau
- 7 May 2021
- - Schweizer Theatertreffen
- 10 September 2020
- - Wiener Festwochen
- 24 + 25 August 2020
- - Mladi Levi Festival, Ljubljana
- 30 June – 3 July 2020
- - National Festival of the Arts, Makhanda / South Africa
- 27 June 2020
- - Hebbel am Ufer Berlin
- 12 June 2020
- - Gessnerallee (Zürich)
- 2 May 2020
- - Trafostation, Jena
- 25 April 2020
- - Theater Münster / Festival "Denkfabrik"
- 1 February 2020
- - Ringlokschuppen Ruhr
- 24 January 2020
- - Theater Freiburg
- 4 November 2019
- - München, Festival "Spielart"
- 1 November 2019
- - Frankfurt am Main, Mousonturm
- 25 October 2019
- - Rio de Janeiro, Goethe Institut
- 20 October 2019
- - Festival FETEAG, Caruaru
- 18 October 2019
- - Festival FETEAG, Recife
- 2 October 2019
- - Festival FIT Lugano
- 14 + 15 September 2019
- - Kaserne Basel
- 11 September 2019
- - Kaserne Basel
- 25 April 2018
- - Théàtre Vidy Lausanne
  - (sketch)

One year after the death of his father, author and director Boris Nikitin begins to write the story of his ALS disease. The disease had made short work: it took almost a year from diagnosis to death. Very early on, the father opened the idea of considering assisted suicide, which is a legal way of dying in Switzerland. It’s a statement that changes everything.

In "Attempt on Dying" Nikitin combines the story of this outing with the story of his own coming-out as a gay man 20 years ago and develops a radical and at the same time intimate theatrical evening about what it means to take the step into the public eye, making oneself attackable and vulnerable. Nikitin's play thereby fundamentally reinterprets vulnerability from something that we normally prefer to hide from each other to an ability that arises in the act of its exposure.

by and with: Boris Nikitin
Production management: Annett Hardegen

Supported by: Fachausschuss Tanz & Theater der Kantone Basel-Stadt und Basel-Landschaft.

More material

- Wagnis Wunde - Conversation with Boris Nikitin (in German)
- listen

Teaser (2')