What’s On

A USA PREMIERE BY SEDEF ECER

SEDEF ECER

FIRST LADY is a satirical romp through the last vestiges of power of an imaginary Mesopotamian country.

Queen Ishtar lives in a bubble, oblivious to the uprising of an enslaved people. Half goddess in a sanitized cocoon, half guinea pig in an experimental aquarium, she will be the unwitting catalyst for an explosive reaction. A revolution is brewing in the streets, but no one told the First Lady, who is enjoying a holiday at her summer palace with Gazal, her beloved trans stylist. Everyone in the palace is abandoning ship, so the Advisors decide to do a live, televised interview with the clueless and unpredictable First Lady, to assure the public that all is well in the country when in reality it is complete chaos. Elish, the harried Chief of Staff, is called in to make sure she does not stray from their prepared script, while also monitoring Yasmine, the young journalist they dug up from a fishing magazine, to make sure she does not mention politics as the farce ramps up into a full manic energy.

Directed by Adil Mansoor, Ecer’s timely play speaks to the delusive nature of power, corruption, and cronyism in a scathing, hilarious critique of this seminal moment in global politics. As waves of political unrest sweep through the United States, it is easier than ever to see the fault lines in our democracy and envision what its unraveling might resemble. 

Born in Istanbul, novelist, playwright, and screenwriter Sedef Ecer practices several forms of writing in Turkish and French. Her novel, Trésor national, (Lattès 2021, Poche 2023), won literary prizes and received an enthusiastic response from critics and booksellers alike. Her plays have been produced and received staged and radio readings at international festivals, in public and private theaters in France and abroad, and in public spaces, such as cafés, libraries, and schools. They have also been taught in middle and high schools and at university theater departments (including Columbia University, UC Berkeley, Sciences Po Paris, Queens College, the Sorbonne, and the University of the Peloponnese), and translated and published in several countries. Winner of numerous prizes and grants, she was included in the “Universal Dictionary of Creatives” in 2014 (UNESCO). She is a member of the SACD and a founding member of the Parlement des Écrivaines Francophones.

 Sedef Ecer grew up in the world of movie-making, theatre and television. As a writer and actress, she has been a nominee or a recipient of prestigious awards. (French National Center of Theater, French National Center of Cinema, Beaumarchais Award, French Society of Multimedia Writers, Draft of a Dream, Velasquez Price, Writing Stipend of Paris Region, National Theater Award of Guérande, High School Students Favorite Play, nominated for Godot Award, Collidram Award, Best Television Comedy La Rochelle Festival) She is one of the founders of Parlement des Écrivaines Francophones.

​She writes different genres and in two languages: she has written more than 500 articles or opinion pieces for the press, novels, screenplays, explored new genres and translated Montaigne, Charlotte Delbo or Saint-Exupery’s works into Turkish. 

 But her major work is in the field of theatre. Her plays are performed in numerous theaters and festivals in different countries, published, awarded and translated into Polish, Turkish, Armenian, German, Greek, English, Persian, Italian etc.

Her plays were directed by Elise Chatauret, Thomas Bellorini, Bruno Freyssinet, Vincent Goethals, Tina Brueggemann, Hansguenther Heyme, Lisa Rothe, Evren Odcikin, Shiva, Ordooi, Erin Gilley, Laurent Maindon  and many others.

She was invited as a visiting artist to a variety of Universities including Columbia Barnard, Berkeley, Sciences Po Paris... 

As an actress, she played in feature films and several plays since she is three years old and has worked recently under the directions of Amos Gitaï (with Jeanne Moreau), Lorenzo Gabriel, Thomas Bellorini, etc.