As a screenwriter, I love inhabiting the psychologies of other people, understanding their motivations, their perspectives, their drives. I particularly love writing villains – or perceived villains – and embodying their perspectives and understanding them. In our increasingly polarised and fractured world, we are constantly taught to think of people as our enemies; art, for me, is the place we bridge those divides and encourage understanding and empathy, even between people who vociferously disagree with each other.
For Drag Mother, which I am performing at EartH Hackney on the 18th October, I am embodying the perspective of my Muslim mother, who has long had an issue with me being gay and my being a drag queen. I want to embody her perspective to forgive her, but also to understand her on a human, empathetic level. For my mother is the biggest inspiration for my drag – she is the most glamorous and iconic woman that I know, and I would not be a drag queen without her (even though she hates that I am a drag queen).
Drag Mother is a show filled with live music and live comedy, as Glamrou and her mother go to war about “what really happened,” exploring Arab identity at a time when Arab voices are being silenced, drag and womanhood, motherhood and childhood, and the relationship between trauma, performance and storytelling.
Glamrou: Drag Mother is on Saturday 18 October 2025, 7pm – 10pm, at EartH Hackney, 11-17 Stoke Newington Rd, Dalston, London N16 8BH, United Kingdom.
