Review: 5 LESBIANS EATING A QUICHE at 12th Ave Arts

Welcome to the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein. The motto: “No men. No meat. All manners.” Got it? When you walk through the steel, blast-resistant concrete door, you are now a participant in the society’s ritual Quiche Breakfast.

Set in a 1950s community center, 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche is a one-act interactive comedy where five buttoned-up, prim ladies distract themselves from nuclear anxiety (among other types of existential agitation) through their community of unmarried women. This day’s quiche breakfast is high-stakes, for it’s a quiche contest, and these women’s devotion to quiche borders on the religious. But, as you might imagine given the title, these polite women’s hunger for “quiche” is redirected from a different passion. 

Now performing at 12th Ave Arts, Pony World Theatre’s production leans into the absurdity of these circumstances. With director Kate Jaeger at the helm, this production is high-octane and confidently odd. The 1950s Middle America setting, which scenic designer Teia O’Malley renders as a perfect fusion of underground bunker-core and kitsch, is a delightful twist on the comedy of manners, a genre more typically set in Restoration or Victorian society. 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche falls in lock-step with the genre’s criticism of moral and sexual hypocrisies, and does so with an endearing absurdity. There are moments of fiddling when you start to wonder if anything is going to happen, but it takes so long that it starts to enter the absurdity of Waiting for Godot territory. Not in a bad way; it’ll make you shiver with antici…pation. 

Each of the five performances is distinct and committed. Marianna de Fazio’s eager and naive Wren will not stopgrinning through the turmoil, and her white-knuckling onto the rules of their society is the most believable. Then there’s Lulie (Lisa Viertel), clearly the group’s iron-fisted ruler. Viertel’s commitment to seriousness is key to her character and the play’s comedy. Ginny (Megan Huynh), Dale (Ayla Wren Wallace) and Vern (Erin Michele Gabbard) prop up the group with their own versions of being manically polite (Huynh the most manic of the bunch), and it’s fun to watch all three of their interpretations of their characters dealing with intense conflict. 

There is an element of audience interaction with this play. The five performers serve as the officers of the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein, and the audience is treated as members. At times, people get picked on (one in particular gets routinely chastised), and given the intimate setting of the 12th Ave Arts theater, there’s a good chance that you will get called out. When it comes to audience participation, there need to be clear rules. Should the audience talk back, or not? At times, there were explicit asks for a call and response, but other times, the level of participation felt blurry, leading to some audience members chiming in with ad-libs that pulled focus. Thankfully, this ensemble handled it in stride.

We may not be living through McCarthy-era Red Scare anxiety, but there’s a perpetual, collective sense of doom in 2026, so there’s something cathartic about watching an atomic-era apocalypse enacted, and even better, played for laughs. There’s also something sweet about this community of women. They’ve found their third place, a refuge at a time when the Lavender Scare made such places a necessity, and the society’s rigid rules double as camouflage. As you’d expect, when things go haywire, this rule-abiding bunch short-circuits.

5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche has a title so banal and specific that it suggests irony, a distance from the material that would seem to lack the earnestness good theater requires. But Ponyworld’s rendition does not lack earnestness. And it’s full to the brim with the proper amount of ridiculous. Go for a good time (but don’t forget the rules!). 

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