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Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne

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Attempt on Dying

Boris Nikitin

Attempt on Dying

Tentative de mourir

In this radical and intimate play, the author and director Boris Nikitin from Basel draws a connection between his coming out as a homosexual and his father's courage in his death throes.

The result is a work of profound emotion and reflection that explores vulnerability and the most oppressive of anxieties: the fear of being oneself.

At the age of twenty and after two summers of passion with a lover, Boris Nikitin announces to his loved ones that he is gay, thus voicing his truth to himself and others, against the conventions of the time. Almost fifteen years later, his father learns that he has ALS – a kind of sclerosis also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. In the face of this incurable disease that keeps him mentally lucid yet progressively paralyses him, the father must contend with his ever-declining body, which he had previously regarded as an efficient, finely tuned laboratory. He soon makes the decision to shorten the wait for death by resorting to assisted suicide. His decision – although it was not actually carried out – changed everything: the act of choosing death, going against his self and against convention, dispelled his fears and opened another path onto the rest of his life.

In their different ways, Nikitin and his father were both able to overcome social conditioning and share the unspoken, hidden desires and intimate truths. By relying on trust, they became vulnerable and thus human.

Boris Nikitin's text, which he began shortly after the death of his father, brings the two experiences together through their differences. Staging himself in a minimalistic set design, he creates a performance about what it means to break social taboos, to dare to step into the public sphere and, in so doing, to make oneself visible, vulnerable and open to attack. Attempt on Dying is a play about the gaze of others, overcoming the boundaries of shame and about the utopia of a vulnerability that would no longer be perceived as a weakness, but as a revolutionary power.

From 18 to 19 March 2022
Durée:
55 min
Salle René Gonzalez

Theater
In English, surtitled in French

Dates and times

Friday, March 18, 2022 - 9:30pm Fri 18.03 21h30
Saturday, March 19, 2022 - 8:30pm Sat 19.03 20h30

RATES
from CHF. 5.- to 25.-
for example: Young rate, student, apprentice, 16/25 y.o.: from CHF. 8.-

Tarif S si couplé avec le deuxième spectacle de Borisi Nikitin, 24 images par seconde Acheter

Tarif S
Tickets, timetables and detailed information
Boris Nikitin

Director and author

Boris Nikitin

Boris Nikitin est un metteur en scène, auteur et essayiste. Depuis 2008, ses projets artistiques se préoccupent de la construction des réalités et des identités dans la communication sociale et politique, jouant notamment avec des points de vue queer, féministes et dissidents. Ses créations mettent volontiers en doute réalités et identités et, grâce au théâtre, élaborent des formes alternatives aux manières d’être soi. Dans Martin Luther Propagandastück (2016) et Aufführung einer gefälschten Predigt über das Sterben (2018), Boris Nikitin explore les relations entre maladie, vulnérabilité et réalité. À la frontière de la performance et du théâtre documentaire, ses spectacles cherchent à mêler critique, poésie et entertainment. En 2017, il reçoit le J.M.R. Lenz Prize for Drama of the City of Jena et en 2020 le Prix suisse du théâtre. À Vidy, il présente Hamlet à l’occasion du Programme commun de 2017.

From the same artist
Hamlet
Learn more
Credits

Concept, texte, performance
Boris Nikitin

Production
Annett Hardegen

Regard extérieur
Matthias Meppelink

Production
It's The Real Thing Studios

Coproduction
Kaserne Basel - Gessnerallee

Avec le soutien de
Fachausschuss Tanz & Theater der Kantone Basel-Stadt und Basel-Landschaft

Le texte en allemand est édité aux éditions Frida.
 

 


 

 

Press and Pro
Consult and download various documents related to the show: press file, HD photos, press reviews and more.

Photos HD

Download ZIP

by the same artist this season
Boris Nikitin/Kukuruz Quartett
24 Bilder pro Sekunde
17.03. - 19.03.
Season 21/22
+
  • Français
Press reviews
Versuch über das Sterben - BZ Basel
13 September 2019
 

"Anti-Theater als berührendes Kopfkino"

 

Read more
Versuch über das Sterben - Basler Zeitung
13 September 2019
 

"Wer spricht, bleibt nicht allein"

 

Read more
Bibliography

Propositions de lectures pour poursuivre le spectacle autrement (livres en vente à la librairie du Théâtre):

  • Johann Michel, Le réparable et l’irréparable, L’humain au temps du vulnérable, Hermann
  • J. Butler, Ce qui fait une vie. Essai sur la violence, la guerre et le deuil, Zones.
  • Katje de Geest, Carmen Hornbostel, et al., Why Theatre?
  • Boris Nikitin, Versuch über das Sterben, Edition Frida 
  • Maggie Nelson, Les Argonautes
  • Maggie Nelson, De la liberté 
  • Marie Garrau, Politique de la vulnérabilité, CNRS Éditions
  • Mario Levrero, Le roman lumineux

Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne

Directeur Vincent Baudriller

Avenue Gustave Doret

CH-1007 Lausanne

Billetterie +41 21 619 45 45

Administration +41 21 619 45 44

[email protected]

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