Nicole Beutler directs FIRST MAN, a solo performance by theatre maker Sadettin Kırmızıyüz. The performance will tour from November 2025 through March 2026, with its premiere on 7 November at Frascati, Amsterdam. Click here for the full tour schedule.
The morning after the PVV’s election victory in 2023, the phone rings. It’s Sadettin’s ex-wife. Their ten-year-old son is afraid his grandparents will be deported. “Will you talk to him?” she asks. In the kitchen, Sadettin tries to reassure his son: “We belong here. Even if our name sounds different. Whatever happens, we’re staying.” That night, his son sleeps peacefully. But Sadettin lies awake. In his dreams, he wonders: is Earth as dangerous for my child as Krypton was for young Superman?
After years of discrimination and xenophobia, must his son now also learn to live with fear? In the Kırmızıyüz household, several languages are spoken, and they celebrate Christmas, Ramadan, Easter, Eid al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice), and Sinterklaas. And yet, it feels as if they must keep proving they belong, simply because Sadettin’s father once came from elsewhere.
FIRST MAN is a powerful reflection on family, identity, and belonging and on how we hold onto each other, even when the world makes us doubt our place in it.