5 Lesbians Eating A Quiche

5 Lesbians Eating A Quiche
Written by Evan Linder and Andrew Hobgood. Directed by Nathanael Cooper. Melbourne Fringe Festival. Lithuanian Club North Melbourne. Sept 24 – Oct 1, 2016.

The Melbourne premiere season of the Off-Broadway 5 Lesbians Eating A Quiche is here for the Melbourne Fringe Festival 2016 after a critically acclaimed Australian premiere last year in Brisbane and sell-out seasons in Chicago and New York. This award winning show starring Catherine Alcorn, Lauren Jackson, Ashlee Lollback, Lauren O’Rourke and Bianca Zouppas is showing at one of Melbourne’s hidden gems, the Lithuanian Club North Melbourne and it’s a must see.

To crudely sum up what it’s about simply? It’s about lesbians, the Cold War, the survival of the egg – and quiche. Bizarre combination and all this executed by an ensemble of 5 superb actors wearing the most feminine, beautiful 1950s period dresses; it’s outrageously perfect.

To elaborate, 5 Lesbians Eating A Quiche is set in the US in the mid 1950s. It was thought to be a time of prosperity and social normality when millions of baby boomers were born and millions of homes were built – the birth of the ‘suburb’. It was also the peak of the Cold War and threats of nuclear warfare.  

In a nutshell the widows in 5 Lesbians Eating A Quiche prepare for a possible disaster in the hope that they can protect the population from diminishing.  They have formed a group called the ‘Susan B Anthony Society For The Sisters of Gertrude Stein’ and such a society would be based on a very powerful foundation indeed – Susan Brownell Anthony (1820-1906), American social reformer and women’s rights advocate played a pivotal role in the women’s suffrage movement. Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright and art collector. Stein was a lesbian and the author of one of the earliest stories about same sex relationships and ‘coming out’, titled Q.E.D written in 1903 but published in 1950 as Things as They Are. 

So power to the widows who call a community meeting, their annual quiche breakfast in fact and it’s like no other you could ever imagine.  In their outrageous, exquisite, over the top acting and exaggerated accents you will be thoroughly entertained and in this purest of comedies and in all its crazy hilarity the messages are loud and clear; stand united for the equality of women and for same sex love, stand against the destruction of humanity, rejoice and celebrate love and life and eat quiche, for it is the quiche that may be a savior.   

5 Lesbians Eating A Quiche reminds us that we can still laugh in the face of adversity and that we can laugh at ourselves and should from time to time, no one is perfect and if we stand collectively as a community and as a group we can be far more effective and successful. This is a gorgeous show, it’s fast paced, it’s beautifully staged, it’s splendid and you will absolutely leave smiling I have no doubt. I loved it.

Lisa Romeo

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