From New York to Edinburgh: Edu Díaz on Bringing 'A Drag Is Born' – A Colourful Celebration of Queer Discovery and Resilience – to the Fringe

Edu Díaz’s non-verbal clown show A Drag Is Born explores queer job and discovery with lip-sync and drag with a touch of audience interaction. After premiering in April 2024 at the NYC Fringe Festival and winning six awards, including Best Solo Actor and Best Solo Show, in seven festivals in New York City, Orlando, and Los Angeles, A Drag Is Born is coming to Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Ahead of the show’s run this August, we caught up with Edu Díaz, an LGBTQ+ multi award-winning actor, performer, theatre producer, and writer from the Canary Islands based in New York.

Tell us a little bit about the story behind this show.

A Drag Is Born is the result of a homophobic assault, the rise of hate speech, a profound reflection around my queerness, and the need to have fun onstage. The show is an exorcism with feathers -a dragorcism. A silly, colorful, and collective ritual of freedom, acceptance, and rebellion.

What drew you to tell this story without words, and how do you think that impacts how audiences connect with it?

After a performance at the iconic ‘The Stonewall Inn’, someone said to me: ‘It’s incredible you don’t even say a word’, and that blew my mind as I wasn’t aware of it. But it makes sense: the man in A Drag Is Born is about to discover who he is, and he doesn’t even have a voice. What happens with the audience every show is incredible: we create a common language on the go. It is magical.

You blend clowning, lip-sync, and drag in the show. How did you go about finding the right balance between those styles?

I wish I had some smart answer, but everything in A Drag Is Born came out very organically. This brings me immense peace as an artist, as I used to intellectualize or plan my previous work, and now I trust my instinct and let what happens in the moment unfold in connection with the audience.

What does queer joy mean to you personally, and how does it manifest on stage?

With A Drag Is Born I’m fulfilling the dream of the kid Edu who would wear a curtain as a sophisticated dress and do a passionate lip-sync in front of a mirror, so breaking the closet of my inner drag performer is queer joy. Sharing this discovery with an audience that takes my hand to embark on this beautiful ride of humanity is the greatest queer joy.

You’ve performed A Drag Is Born across the U.S. and now you're bringing it to the UK. How have different audiences responded to the show?

Audiences are sometimes quiet, sometimes wild, but they always accompany me on this rollercoaster. A Drag Is Born is universal due to its wordless nature, but also because it is incredibly human. After all, I’m a hairy man from the remote Canary Islands performing on the other side of the Atlantic, and still, audiences get the point. Given that said, I’m excited to see what kind of whimsical energy I will find in Edinburgh.

With a soundtrack featuring icons like Celine Dion and Nancy Sinatra, how did you choose the music? Is there one track that always lifts the energy in the room?

The music was carefully and obsessively curated in long walks along the Hudson River. After all, the songs (from oldies to pop hits) are telling the story as well. Iconic anthems like All By Myself definitely hit the audience. Still, I’m proud to say that even the unknown tracks work, as it’s all about the emotional ride the audience and I embark on.

A Drag Is Born is at ZOO Playground, Playground 2, 1 - 24 Aug (not 12), 18.05 (19.05). For tickets go to https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/a-drag-is-born