October 1943: Heinrich Himmler gathers all the Gauleiters of the Reich in the Polish city of Poznan to inform them of the regime’s decision to completely exterminate the Jewish population of Europe. Before he does so, however, Himmler has two phonographs set up in front of everyone in order to record the speech on two guard records. However, contrary to what most people assume, it is not Himmler’s words that are to be recorded, but the silence in the hall.

With Magda Toffler – the second work in which he himself takes to the stage (the first was presented at FIT in 2019) – Boris Nikitin drills deep into the hidden layers of the European 20th century. Also here, the staging is reduced to just a few elements: a chair, a manuscript and the artist himself.

The works of Nikitin are known for their blurring of the boundaries between fictional theatre and performance, between documentary and propaganda. In this show, he delves into the past of his grandmother, Magda Toffler, whose Jewish origins and a life spent in hiding were only discovered after her death. A biographical text, therefore, that delves into forgotten memories, evoking the silence of the centuries and intertwining personal and collective history, reflection and emotion.