 |
| The cast of 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche (Alex Garland) |
5 Lesbians Eating a
Quiche
Fantastic. Z Theatre
(at Ballard Underground)
Through June 2, 2018
You are cordially invited to attend the 1956 Susan B.
Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein Annual Quiche Breakfast.
Bring your quiches to be judged. Their Golden Rule is “No Men. No Meat. All
Manners.”
A semi-interactive playlet (I’m not sure you can call it a
full-fledged play), 5 Lesbians Eating a
Quiche, is being produced by the LGBTQ-focused theater company, Fantastic.Z
Theatre. You make your way to the basement known as The Ballard Underground,
and get a name tag with your assumed name for the evening. This allows the
leadership of the SBASFTSOGS to call you by your name.
If you want to be extra sweet, you might bring them gifts of
boiled eggs. Eggs are about all these ladies can talk about, putting aside all
the horrid politics outside their hermetically sealed bomb shelter that is
guaranteed to protect them from the invasion of communists that might happen At
Any Moment!
The leadership of this stalwart group includes chairwoman
Wren Robin Events (Jana Gueck),
Veronica “Vern” Schultz (Jane Martin)
who is responsible for the great construction of the vault, Dale Prist (Jessica Severance), the new one, Ginny
Cadbury (Alexandria Stevens) and
Lulie Stanwyck (Jessica Stepka).
Konstantin Lazarov’s
neat, tidy, brightly yellow set calls to you with a vintage kitchen table and
chairs as you wait for the meeting to start. Amy Baldwin’s 1950s costumes, with flaired skirts and mandatory
bouffant hair, are de rigueur for the cast.
Lovingly crafted from an original skit, writers Evan Linder
and Andrew Hobgood harken back to times when Lesbians, like Gay men, had to
hide their sexuality and use euphemisms to connect with each other and find
community. These women have found quiche, and they LOVE it!
The cast is genial and smartly portray their characters
while walking the edge of satire and smart repartee. We’re introduced to each
one and their place in the hierarchy of leadership. And we cannot miss the
quiche, lovingly introduced and announced as the winner of the event, with an
ensuing fight to be the One to taste it first.
It’s an absurd and silly ditty, with a few undertones of
menace from the “outside,” and should be enjoyed. Partaking of the bar before
the event might give the entire thing a nicer sparkle. But the cast is game on
and each does a lovely job with her character.
Their hesitation and then full-bodied enjoyment of finding a
moment to declare and realize that they ALL are Lesbians, and so is the entire
audience, is definitely one to revel in.
No comments:
Post a Comment
This is a moderated comment section. Any comment can be deleted if the moderator feels that basic civility standards are not being met. Disagreements, however, if respectfully stated, are certainly welcome. Just keep the discussion intelligent and relatively kind.