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On 2 October 2026, our new play will celebrate its world premiere – simultaneously at the Kaserne in Basel, the Market Theatre Laboratory in Johannesburg and the Festival Internazionale del Teatro in Lugano.

Kids is an extraordinary production: a blend of theatre and live cinema. The action takes place on the streets of Johannesburg and is broadcast live onto a big screen in the theatre during every performance. Before the audience’s very eyes, a captivating portrait of a young generation unfolds: a vibrant urban odyssey in the spirit of post-documentary theatre, the Nouvelle Vague and a new wave of South African cinema.

Kids- a follow-up to the critically acclaimed cult play Dämonen, which Nikitin produced at the Theater Basel in 2022 in collaboration with Sebastian Nübling - is a collaboration with the Johannesburg-based cameraman, filmmaker and journalist Tšeliso Monaheng.
It's part of a ten-part live cinema cycle exploring the emotional worlds of young people today.

Further performances:
3 and 4 October 2026 (Kaserne Basel, Market Lab Johannesburg)
11 & 12 December (HAU – Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin), 20 & 21 March 2027, Kaserne, Basel.

On tour since 2019 and already presented in more than seventy cities worldwide, Essay on Dying will next be shown at the HEAT Festival in Cape Town.

When: 14 & 15 August 2026
Where: HEAT Festival, Cape Town

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

“This is theater at its zero point. But it is precisely in this radicality that the pathos of this evening arises.” bz

“Because Nikitin, in his own initial helplessness, develops a clear language for disturbing thoughts that are difficult to sort out. Because he confronts pain and grief with something that is not a pale consolation, but a courageous self-assertion. Versuch über das Sterben is not so much about death, but about life.”
Süddeutsche Zeitung