About this event
The fascination for Arab divas was Tomas Pevenages’ starting point to travel for ten years through Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. The connection with the Lebanese diva ‘Sabah’ prompted him to leave Belgium behind in 2019 and plunge into a new Lebanese chapter. Sabah (1927-2014), the Lebanese singer and film star, embodied Arab camp and was a strong-willed feminist. Until her last days she deployed her hedonistic lifestyle as a weapon. With 50 albums, 98 films, 20 theatre performances, 30 aesthetic surgeries and nine husbands on her record, she remains a queer icon in the Arab world, with a wardrobe to rival the most fashionable drag queens. At a crossroad in Tomas' life, Sabah sent shockwaves through his body. She took him wandering through a region marked by crises, wars, revolutions and conflicts. Places where the queer community balances dangerously between visibility and safety. With this musically, sexy, queer cabaret Tomas introduces you to legendary Arab divas. Through intimate phone conversations with his mother, he outlines his relationships, loves and desires, past the nightclubs of Beirut to the steamy bathhouses of Damascus.
