"The Incident"
Guadalupe is an almost sixteen‑year‑old young woman of colour. She has a sharp tongue, razor‑sharp humour and a tiny, tender heart. She’s standing at a crossroads in her life, in a world that does not give everyone equal opportunities. How do you dare to dream of a future when the world forces you to focus on simply surviving the present?
Location ITA & Bijlmer Parktheater
Duration tba
Genre Theater
Language Dutch
Premiere 17 May 2026
About the play
On just one square metre, June Yanez plays ten different roles: Guadalupe herself, as well as all the people around her. Together, they offer a glimpse into a world where some dreams are allowed to fly while others are pushed down. “The Incident” is an honest and confronting coming‑of‑age story, portraying a society in which you are labelled as early as school. Where what you are capable of is determined by where you come from and what your parents have. A system that gives some people all the space in the world, while others are never seen for who they truly are.
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“The Incident” resists that system—not by wagging a finger, but through imagination. Because imagination is resistance; it opens a window onto a world where everyone is allowed to dream.
“The Incident” is created by June Yanez, Leila Sahir and Zephyr Brüggen. With this production, ITA provides space for young, talented makers and ensemble members to develop their work and make their voices heard. For “The Incident”, Leila has written a brand‑new theatre text.
JUNE ABOUT "THE INCIDENT"
“Dreaming and imagining the future are privileges. Not everyone gets that chance. Class divides shape the course of your life from a very young age, and that inequality reaches far beyond secondary school. It touches your sense of self‑worth, how you see yourself, what you believe is possible. That moment of awareness — when you realise the playing field isn’t level — is exactly where this performance begins.
While creating "The Incident", we were inspired by several sources, including Michaela Coel’s play Chewing Gum Dreams, in which a young girl discovers that her place in the world is shaped not only by her own choices. We were also influenced by the series Klassen by Omroep Human, which exposes the inequalities within Dutch education in a painfully clear way. And, of course, by the work of former Amsterdam alderman Marjolein Moorman, who demonstrated how our education system structurally disadvantages certain children. With this performance, we want to explore what becomes possible when dreams are given space earlier in life.”
About the creators
June Yanez (1997) is an actress, theatre‑maker and musician. She grew up in Eindhoven and Rotterdam, where she discovered her love of theatre through the Hofplein Theatre. After completing the MBO Theatre School in Rotterdam, she graduated in 2022 from the Academy of Theatre and Dance in Amsterdam. Her first encounter with large‑scale theatre was an internship in Yerma, directed by Eline Arbo. It marked the beginning of a fruitful collaboration that led to, among other things, a role in De Jaren.
She was part of Het Nationale Theater for three years, performing in productions including De seizoenen (Eric de Vroedt). As of 2026, June is a member of the ITA Ensemble. This season, she can be seen in A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Rebecca Frecknall, and in The Incident.
Leila Sahir (1992) is a writer, director, poet and playwright. She graduated from the Netherlands Film Academy and writes for film, theatre and poetry. Her work is driven by questions about why we do what we do, and how we become who we are.
She wrote the screenplay for the short film Laatste rit (selected for IFFR 2021), was head writer of the NPO series Sihame, and directed the short film Maysa (nominated for the Debut Competition at the Netherlands Film Festival). In 2025 she made her feature‑film debut Love Me, Love Me Not. For The Incident, she has written a brand‑new theatre text.
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Zephyr Brüggen creates and directs theatre from a musical approach to language. Her productions embrace doubt, enchantment, playfulness and chaos, placing the audience’s imagination at the centre. She studied political philosophy in Rome, classical languages at the University of Cambridge, and graduated in 2021 from the directing programme of the Academy of Theatre and Dance in Amsterdam (Lizzy & De Bacchanten, André Veltkamp Grant).
She created Vecht (2022, nominated for the BNG Bank Theatre Prize) at Likeminds, Het Dromenpaleis (2025) at the Bostheater, and has collaborated with several companies including De Warme Winkel, maatschappij discordia and Het Nationale Theater.
Credits
concept & performance June Yanez
text Leila Sahir
direction Zephyr Brüggen
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with thanks to Het Nationale Theater
