5 Five Lesbians Eating A Quiche Chicago Commercial Collective and New Colony Theatre

Extended - June 29th

Thurs - Sat 730p; Sun 2p

 

"5 Lesbians" is a very good time, not least because the cast  is so seriously droll" - Chicago Tribune
"It's all delightfully weird" - TimeOutChicago
".I have always thought quiche was funny. But I didn’t know it could be this funny" - NewCity Chicago LV Bags
"..manages to bake in a whole heap of comedy and social satire into a brief one act"
- ChicagoTheatreCritic.com
" ..superbly gifted cast ...a side-splitting, nostalgic trip to a more innocent time..welcome addition to this theatre season" - ChicagoTheatreReview.com


Showtimes Thu-Sat 730p; Sun 2p

Tickets $30-$35 online or at Box office  773.404.7336 (Wed-Sun)


05/01/14 - 06/08/14

Preview 5/1 730p; 5/2-3 8p; 5/4 2p. Reg run Thu-Sat 730p; Sun 2p


Chicago hits, home again by the Commercial Collective - Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune 5/12/14. - "Can a Chicago hit come home again from New York? The Chicago Commercial Collective certainly is hoping so.

A small, for-profit producer, the Collective, which is co-run by Brian Loevner and Aurelia F. Cohen, is attempting to build a touring market, mostly in the Midwest, for off-Loop Chicago productions. In service of that aim, the group has re-opened two of the most financially successful small Chicago shows of the last few years, both of which transferred to New York with varying degrees of success.

Ike Holter's "Hit the Wall," which is now up at the Greenhouse Theater Center, is a project of a young company called The Inconvenience and was first seen as part of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company's Garage Repertory. After a critically acclaimed Chicago run (I was one of those doing the acclaiming), "Hit the Wall," a freewheeling show about the Stonewall riots that kicked off the modern gay-rights movement, transferred off-Broadway to the Barrow Street Theatre. There, a very different production by a mostly New York-based cast quickly hit the skids.


Andrew Hobgood and Evan Linder's "5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche," now up in the Chopin Theatre basement, began life as a project of The New Colony. Although a shorter, earlier version of the comedy was part of Collaboraction's Sketchbook Festival in 2010, the show, a parody of sexual repression set in 1956, graduated to a full production from The New Colony in 2011. After then attracting much attention (the Tribune's Kerry Reid was an enthusiastic backer), "5 Lesbians" moved first to the New York International Fringe Festival and then to New York's Soho Playhouse, taking the original Chicago cast along for the Gotham ride. It did very nicely.

Both those shows are now back home in something close to their premiere form. Both are well worth seeing.

My trajectory with each has been different. I loved "Hit the Wall" the first time around, and was horrified at what transpired in New York, mostly because the gloriously messy nature of the show, and of Holter's writing, had been awkwardly shoe-horned into something resembling a traditional script. This did not work, and the recasting served the piece poorly. "5 Lesbians," which basically is an extended sketch of the kind you might have seen on "Saturday Night Live" in the 1990s, I saw and enjoyed for the first time. But he want to get that rolex replica online.

"5 Lesbians" is an interactive show set at the quiche breakfast held annually by the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein. Here you really are seeing the original cast. "Hit the Wall" has been inaccurately billed as such, with the producers seemingly forgetting that some of the actors have moved to New York and not returned, while others were in other shows. Before I'd buy a ticket to "Hit the Wall," I'd make sure that Manny Buckley, the show's original star and its moral conscience, you might say, will be in the cast that night. I understand there is a rotation for this and a couple of other roles; I wish that were not the case.

That said, "Hit the Wall" remains one of the Chicago greats, and while I miss a couple of the original actors and it would unreasonable to expect a return to the excitement of its original moment (a night I won't quickly forget), this staging (like all the others, directed by Eric Hoff) is very much in the original spirit of a politically engaged and poetically rich piece of writing from Holter. He's one of Chicago's brightest playwriting talents, and this show was enough to serve notice that his best work is yet ahead. "Hit the Wall," which also features the fine original stars Walter Briggs, Layne Manzer, Mary Williamson and Shannon Matesky, is very much a nocturnal event, replete with a live band, an on-stage bar and an engaged environmental staging. It fits well into the upstairs space at the Greenhouse; this is far and away the best visual staging of the three I've seen.

It is a pleasure to see the work grow in scale from that first night, but also set free, allowed to be what it always wanted to be: a riff on a singular piece of American history, created by young emerging artists who were not yet born on the night the customers of the Stonewall Inn fought back, but who understand their current debt to the moment when a group of Americans decided that passivity was no longer an option.

With the audience given nametags and made instant members of the society, "5 Lesbians" is a very good time, not least because the cast (Caitlin Chuckta, Rachel Farmer, Kate Carson Groner, Megan Johns and Thea Luxe) is so seriously droll. You certainly have grasped the main gag — these are lesbians who dare not speak the name — before the end of the show, which could use 10 minutes off the running time. But ''5 Lesbians" packs a punch and, like "Hit the Wall," is a reminder of how far things have come. And come back"


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5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche - Dan Jakes, TimeoutChicag.com  - "Think apple pie is the most wholesome American dish? A handful of lesbians—beg pardon, "widows"—at the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein would politely disagree. But aw, shucks, they'll do it with such an open heart and a welcoming smile that it would be impossible to turn down their invitation to be made an honorary member of the club, name tag and gender reassignment included, and, if it were offered, a bite of the lukewarm gelatinous breakfast tart with which they're so obsessed.

Andrew Hobgood and Evan Linder's outlandish comedy started as a ten-minute New Colony sketch for Collaboraction's Sketchbook Festival in 2010, and it feels like it. In fact, it's no surprise they started with the provocative title (on the same great level of poster-intrigue as Stephen Adly Guirgis' The Motherfucker with the Hat) and worked backwards. Set in a christian louboutin community center in 1956, five women (Kate Carson-Groner, Caitlin Chuckta, Rachel Farmer, Megan Johns and Thea Lux) gather to lead the organization's annual quiche breakfast. Sure, there's a litany of queer closet jokes, but Hobgood and Linder seem less amused by genital metaphors (though they are, and share it well) than they are seeing a group of women try to preserve Norman Rockwell innocence in circumstances that tumble from cautious to apocalyptic.

It's all delightfully weird, as is Chuckta as the most modest debutante of the bunch. The whole ensemble is a joy, really, and Carson-Groner gets a stand-out moment in an extended, multi-character monologue. Director Sarah Gitenstein keeps things bright and zippy, and the whole thing floats on audience buzz and a Christopher Durang–type indulgence in non sequiturs.

This fleshed out 75-minute incarnation, which debuted in 2011 and went on to successful runs at the 2012 New York International Fringe Festival and Off Broadway, is back in town as part of Chicago Commercial Collective's ongoing effort to restage local hits for fresh audiences (here's hoping CCC productions become a spring and summer staple). It would be easy to overread into the longer version—don't. Instead, wash it down with a good mimosa and a hearty appetite for the absurd".


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5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche - Zach Freeman, NewCity Chicago 5/7/14 - "Quiche is a pretty funny word. It’s funny enough when it’s just used to represent the quaint egg-pie dish that it is, but once it starts getting thrown around as a euphemism for a lot more than that, it gets even funnier. And playwrights Andrew Hobgood and Evan Linder use it to its full grammatical and theatrical potential. In short, quiche has never been funnier than in “5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche.” But maybe that’s selling the show short.

After successful runs in Chicago in 2011 and Off-Broadway in 2012 and 2013, Chicago Commercial Collective has brought The New Colony’s twisted little gem back to Chicago, mounting it downstairs at the Chopin Theatre in a near-perfect setting for a show that eventually gets around to taking place in what is essentially a well-decorated, pastel-colored nuclear fallout shelter (Joe Schermoly’s kitschy-cute set design captures all of that wonderfully.)

So, it’s 1956 and the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein has gathered for their Annual Quiche Breakfast. The entire sisterhood (the audience) has gathered to witness the judging of the best quiche. Upon entering the space you’re given a name-tag (I was “Sheila”) that gives the five board members of the society (a cast of five charmingly hilarious ladies) the ability to reference you specifically during the proceedings (they will). And in just under seventy minutes, with all the bubbly energy of prototypical 1950s housewives, these ladies carry out the increasingly surprising points of order of the annual meeting.

In costume designer Nathan Rohrer’s colorful dresses, each character stands out with her own color scheme. And each actress has imbued her character with enough individualized eccentricities to make an instant impression that only grows funnier as the show progresses; Rachel Farmer is a force of nature as the strong-willed southern Lulie, Caitlin Chuckta delivers quiet, comic intensity as the introverted Ginny, Kate Carson-Groner plays upbeat but emotionally fragile as “everyone’s favorite” Dale, Megan Johns is endearingly chipper as the chirpy Wren and Thea Lux maintains a grounded, subtly comedic persona as the no-nonsense Vern.

As the show progresses, the initial euphemisms slowly give way to less-subtle jokes about sexuality and the comedy becomes more broad, but director Sarah Gitenstein and her cast know the art of the slow reveal and, though the story does reach absurd levels, it does so incrementally, allowing us to be surprised every time the stakes are raised again. I have always thought quiche was funny. But I didn’t know it could be this funny"





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It’s still a tasty good time at ’5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche’ - Robert Bullen, ChicagoTheaterCritic.com.
  - "Long live the egg! I remember when I first encountered The New Colony’s wacky, wild creation that is 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche. It was June 2010, and “The Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein” made their grand entrance as part of Sketchbook X at the Chopin Theatre. A 10-minute sketch among a three-hour evening of 10 minute sketches, Lesbians presented a landmine of comedic possibility.

Knowing they had a good thing on their hands, The New Colony, under the creative direction of writers Andrew Hobgood and Evan Linder, expanded it into a 60-minute one-act, and it was among my Top 10 of 2011.

Fast forward four years, and we’re back, full circle, at the Chopin Theatre, with most of the original ladysisters intact. Yet, this time we’re in Chopin’s basement space, which works well for this show that celebrates an era (1956, to be exact) when bomb shelters could double as venues for well-mannered quiche breakfasts.

This unassuming show, in which an annual quiche breakfast goes off the rails and transforms into an impromptu coming out party, manages to bake in a whole heap of comedy and social satire into a brief one act. While the show has become a breakout hit for The New Colony (following a respectable off-Broadway run, this production is a commercial run in partnership with Chicago Commercial Collective — a first for the company), it still maintains a fringy-flair — right down to the dress donned by head ladysister Lulie Stanwyck (A steely Rachel Farmer) which seemed to be unraveling before our eyes (someone please spring for a pair of embroidery scissors for these poor widows).

Megan Johns, who originated the role of Wren Robin, captures, perhaps most effectively, the zany insanity of the proceedings which delighted me back at Sketchbook, while the reserved Caitlin Chuckta, as polite Ginny Cadbury, manages to score the biggest laugh of the evening, of which there are many. Director Sarah Gitenstein keeps this tight ensemble moving smoothly, including through a rather confounding revelation in the final moments that almost derails the evening. But just when things seem to get a little too saccharine, some shock value is peppered in to keep you on your toes.

Whether you enjoy your quiche with or without meat, I encourage you to join this Sisterhood"






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Highly Recommended - No Men, No Meat, All Manners - Colin Douglas, ChicagoTheatreReview.com.
- "It’s been said that real men eat quiche, and while that may be true it would definitely be frowned upon at the annual breakfast meeting and quiche competition of the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein. It’s 1956 and men are banned from this secret society of self-described “widows” that celebrates the egg as the closest thing to Jesus Christ. Meat is also banned from the ingredients possible in one’s quiche entry, and everything is very proper and high-mannered…until “it” happens.

 

This group of five funny, flamboyant, impeccably dressed ladies break the fourth wall and fling their comic portrayals beyond Joe Schermoly’s tastefully festooned church basement setting and out into the audience. Upon entering the theatre, audiences (men and women alike) are given 1950’s female name tags to wear, so that each and every playgoer is instantly transformed into a club member. The cast frequently speaks directly to their congregation hilariously engaging them in the evening’s proceedings. One audience member is identified as a former official stripped of her rank for burying a sausage (Quel frommage!) in her quiche entry last year.

Expanded from a ten-minute comedy sketch, this hour-long play has become a side-splitting, nostalgic trip to a more innocent time when “Father Knows Best” actress Jane Wyatt was a woman’s role model and the love that dared not to speak its name had to be kept in the closet. In fact, it’s only after a catastrophic event suddenly befalls this unnamed small town, and everyone (including the audience) is looking at four years being trapped together in what’s now become a fallout shelter, that true confessions fumble forward. Up to this point the hysterical double entendres and euphemisms are as plentiful as the delicious-looking quiches displayed in the church foyer. But by the end of this play the entire audience is joining the cast proudly proclaiming, “I am a lesbian!”

Sarah Gitenstein has guided her superbly gifted cast through an evening of over-the-top, picture-perfect posturing, posing and parlance. There’s nothing subtle about this production and even the few quiet, dramatic moments eventually erupt into slapstick. Megan Johns is a beautiful, effervescent Wren. Resembling Jean Smart from TV’s “Designing Women,” she’s the perfect, welcoming hostess, clothed in a buttery yellow crinoline dress that’s as proper and pressed as her elegantly styled coif and genteel manners. Caitlin Chuckta is brilliant as Ginny, the tiny straight-laced British bundle of nerves and the undeserved brunt of several jokes. However, the actress wins everyone’s approval (and uncontrollable laughter), when she demonstrates how to properly devour a winning quiche with unbridled animal ferocity.

 

Rachel Farmer makes an entrance in a persimmon ensemble complete with pumps and pearls and takes over the proceedings as Lulie, the organization’s president. A fine mixture of dour looks and giant, gracious smiles, Ms. Farmer is the undisputed ruler of the roost. For this comical character, the egg is everything, as is keeping decorum. Kate Carson-Groner’s Dale is smartly put together and, with her Kodak Brownie camera ever at her fingertips, the official photographer for the day’s events. Ms. Groner is blessed with the play’s most dramatic moments, following her gleefully delivered 11th hour confessional that unexpectedly ties together everyone’s lives. Thea Lux, the only career woman of the group, plays Vern as a tough, no-nonsense lady. With her deadpan delivery, Ms. Lux’s humor is often subtle and more understated than the other characters and her barbed asides provoke many a laugh.

 

The return to Chicago of Andrew Hobgood and Evan Linder’s outrageous recipe for comedy is a welcome addition to this theatre season. The play’s just the right length; any longer and this zany farce would be too hard-boiled. It’s not so much its slim, scatterbrained plot that’s so delectable, but rather the playwrights’ well-written characters, amplified and embellished by the talents of a fine director and these five terrific actresses. Costumed with finesse and style by Nathan Rohrer, these five ladies are a bunch of really good eggs, even if they are slightly cracked".

 


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From The Producers - The hilarious send-up of 1950s cold war repression and kitsch culture, “5 Lesbians Eating Quiche” was an original critically-acclaimed creation by The New Colony.  This remount featuring the original off-Broadway cast is presented by the Chicago Commercial Collective


“5 Lesbians Eating Quiche,” co-written by Andrew Hobgood and Evan Linder and directed by Sarah Gitenstein, finds five women assembled in a church basement (along with the audience) for the 1956 annual meeting of the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein’s annual quiche breakfast. The normally idyllic gathering, where the motto is “no men, no meat, all manners,” is upended when the Society’s
 matriarchs must confront the startling revelation that an atom bomb may be falling on their fair city. As fears are confronted and confessions fly, the chipper ladies stay firm in their commitment that the quiche is a mighty thing and that one must “respect the egg.”  

Following the upward trajectory from its debut as a short play presented at Collaboraction’s Sketchbook Festival in 2010 to a full production during The New Colony’s 2011 season, “5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche” enjoyed a meteoric rise with audiences and critics.


Reviewing for the Chicago Tribune, Kerry Reid said, "The New Colony's show dishes up high-spirited theatrical comfort food with a  bit of a saucy kick." After wowing Chicago where Time Out Chicago called it “smart, sharp and hysterically funny,” the comedy went on to play a sold-out engagement at the 2012 New York International Fringe Festival, winning a “Best Overall Production” award. This was soon followed by a successful off-Broadway run at New York’s SoHo Playhouse. The New York Times said the work’s
“raw and magnetic dementia seems destined to attract a cult following.”



About Playwrights Andrew Hobgood and Evan Linder
Andrew Hobgood is the founding artistic director of The New Colony where his work includes writing and directing the new musicals “Tupperware: An American Musical Fable,” “That Sordid Little Story,” and “Rise of The Numberless.” His directing credits include “Amelia Earhart: Jungle Princess;” the original and commercial productions of “FRAT;” “Hearts Full of Blood,” which won Outstanding Script at the 2010 New York International Fringe Festival, and “B-Side Studio,” a four-episode sitcom produced in collaboration with
The Inconvenience and the University of Chicago TAPS program. His most recent play “reWILDing Genius” was commissioned by the University of Chicago and made its world premiere as part of the 2014 Steppenwolf Garage Rep Series.


Evan Linder is a founding member and co-artistic director of The New Colony. A playwright and actor, Linder teaches playwriting at the University of Chicago and has had the pleasure of working with Victory Gardens, The Inconvenience, Collaboraction, Bailiwick Chicago,  the side project and Bohemian Theater Ensemble since moving to Chicago. Other works include “FRAT,” “11:11,” “The Warriors,” “The Bear Suit of Happiness” and “B-Side Studio.” He was recently listed in Chicago Magazine’s 2013 Power List of Theater Scene-Stealers.


About Director Sarah Gitenstein
Sarah Gitenstein is the associate artistic director at The New Colony and company member at Collaboraction Theater. She is a native of Washington, DC, and a Cum Laude graduate of Kenyon College with a degree in theater. She is the former casting director at Collaboraction where she worked on “The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow,”“Jon” and the Sketchbook Festival. Gitenstein has directed for various theaters in Chicago, including Curious Theater, American Theater Company (Big Shoulder's Festival), The Mammals, Pavement Group  (Amuse Bouche), and Victory Gardens Theater (One Minute Play Festival). Gitenstein directed the Off-Broadway and national tour of “5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche,” and most recently she directed the Jeff Recommended production of The New Colony's “Kate and Sam Are Not Breaking Up.”


About the Chicago Commercial Collective
The Chicago Commercial Collective is a commercial theater company focused on producing Chicago theater of incredible quality and commercial appeal, thereby helping Chicagoans discover the finest of their city’s vibrant theater scene and worthy Off-Loop productions find larger commercial success. Recent projects include the successful commercial remount last fall of TimeLine Theatre Company’s  “To Master the Art” at Chicago’s Broadway Playhouse. The Collective is also presenting The Off-Loop Tour, which will export some
of the best of Chicago theater throughout the Midwest in 2014-15. Productions on the tour include “there is a happiness that morning  is” by Mickle Maher (originally produced by Theater Oobleck), “A Steady Rain” by Keith Huff (originally produced by Chicago Dramatists),  “Unveiled” by Rohina Malik, “Honeybuns” by Dean Evans and “Crime Scene: A Chicago Anthology” by Anthony Moseley  (both originally produced by Collaboraction).

The Collective’s goal is to support a thriving small and mid-sized commercial theater scene. The Collective focuses on producing theater  with proven popularity and builds upon the interest already generated during their original production runs. For investors, the Collective provides opportunities to partner on exciting projects with reasonable financial returns on their investments, while non-profit theater companies enjoy the benefits from their original successful productions that, due to scheduling issues or theater availability, may end  before they have reached the audiences they deserve. Further, artists who question if Chicago’s theater job market can provide stability and fair wages can rely on the Collective to transform the local industry with the development of mid-simid-sized commercial theater and consistent employment opportunities.

Author
co-written by Andrew Hobgood and Evan Linder

Director
Sarah Gitenstein

Performers
Caitlin Chuckta (Ginny), Rachel Farmer (Lulie), Kate Carson Groner (Dale), Megan Johns (Wren) and Thea Luxe (Vern)

Production
Executive Producer - Brian Loevner, Auelia F. Cohen, John Arthur Pinkard; Producer/General Manager - Keaton Wooden; Prodduction Manager - Majel Cuza; Compan Manager - Will Rogers; Co Company Manager - Adam Loard; Stage Manager - Jenniffer J. Thusing; Asst Stage Manager - Smyra Yawn; Sticher - Katrice Tudor; Scenic Chage; Katie-Bell Springmann; Tecnical Director - Andrew Glasenhardt; Master Electrician - Kristof Janezic

Tags: Theater, American, 2014