KAMELEON SADETTIN K

“Raise your hand if you’re white!” calls out Sadettin’s daughter in the living room. She raises her hand, and he joins in. “Daddy! You’re brown!” she says, laughing. She is six, has dark blonde hair and blue eyes, and was baptised in the village church. But she watches her favourite films in Turkish and sometimes says: “When I grow up, I’m going to be a Muslim.” Who is this child? And who is Sadettin beside her?

In KAMELEON, theatre maker Sadettin Kırmızıyüz explores what it means to constantly change colour. He switches between roles: at home the well-behaved Turkish son, on stage the culturally responsible migrant, and on talk shows the nuanced Dutchman with a multicultural background. For years, he saw that as a talent: the ability to adapt and move effortlessly between worlds.

But now there is his daughter.

Because of her white skin, the world suddenly seems to see him differently. In the playground, parents with cargo bikes strike up a conversation, and when a police car drives by, he no longer feels like a potential suspect. Her whiteness seems to rub off on him: from “that Turkish man” to “just a father”.

Until he raises his hand when his daughter asks who is white.

And she corrects him.