'Five lesbians eating a quiche' becomes an immersive experience in Los Angeles

Anxieties about war. An inhospitable culture for LGBTQ+ communities. And an underpinning of loneliness and repressed longing.

The play “Five Lesbians Eating Quiche” is set in 1956, but its themes resonate in 2026. The United States is at war. Attacks on gay marriage and other LGBTQ+ rights remain a cornerstone of today's conservative movement. A reimagining of the 2011 production, popular with colleges and fringe festivals, seeks to further modernize the spectacle in which a morning meeting quickly turns into a stay in a Cold War-era bomb shelter after a nuclear near-annihilation.

When I arrived in the back room of a Glendale church, they gave me a new name. It was clear that “Todd” was not welcome here. “Joan” turned out to be a suitable substitute and I was immediately asked what my life had been like since my husband died. Because tonight he would no longer be in the role of a straight white man. Each audience member is asked to adopt the persona of a widow, as losing a husband seemed to be a requirement for participation in this meeting of the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertude Stein.

How did he die? they asked me. “Skiing accident,” I blurted out. “Yours?” They told me that it was a camping hoax that ended with a bear attack. Tonight on the menu were improvisations, as well as quiche. Metaphors, absurdities and seriousness intermingle in this production by New Forms LA and directed by Marissa Pattullo.

Pattullo's vision for “Five Lesbians Eating a Quiche” increases interactivity, seeking to transform a largely traditional proscenium show, albeit with some fourth-wall-breaking moments, into one focused on audience participation. Presented in a flexible space without a hint of irony at the Glendale Church of the Brethren, “5 Lesbians,” written by Evan Linder and Andrew Hobgood, has been reconstructed as a largely immersive production, that is, one that asks the audience to lean in and interact.

While there is a small stage, it is used sparingly. The five-person cast wanders around the room, sitting at several circular tables to blur the line between script and improvisation. Normally it's a lean 75-minute show, but the night I saw the production it was bumped up to about two hours, allowing time for drinking, socializing and, of course, eating quiche. Pattullo added an intermission, with quiches courtesy of Kitchen Mouse and Just What I Kneaded included in the ticket.

Because quiche, I was often told, was the main topic of conversation at the Easter gathering, to the point that within moments it became clear that this was not a gathering of breakfast enthusiasts but of repressed ones. The hidden meaning is no secret; It's in the title of the work.

“It's a giant metaphor,” says Pattullo, 30. The show, he adds, “continues to find ways to make sense of the times, whether it's Trump being elected or whether we're at war. Or gay marriage. All that stuff. A bomb that goes off and you're trapped inside. It speaks to whoever's watching it.”

Pattullo, who splits his time building New Forms LA and waiting tables at Little Dom's in Los Feliz, first discovered the show while in college in the Midwest. It immediately resonated, and Pattullo has been tinkering with ways to perform it live ever since. During the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, he hosted an online version of the show and premiered it as an immersive production last winter. It will return for two weekends this month.

“5 Lesbians” makes a relatively smooth transition to the immersive format. Perhaps that's because the audience, in the script, is introduced as attending the Susan B. Anthony Society brunch meeting for the Sisters of Gertude Stein, whose motto is “no men, no meat, all manners.” For about the first 30 minutes of the show we interacted heavily with the actors. Dale Prist (Nicole Ohara) has hidden ambitions. Vern Schultz (Chandler Cummings) seems ready for the group to end their charade. Lulie Stanwyck (Noelle Urbano) is fighting so hard to stay formal and formal that she feels on the verge of bursting.

“I really like playing,” Pattullo says, referencing how “5 Lesbians” lends itself to improvisation. “I think some of the girls stick to the script a lot. I say, 'Stay away from the script.' If people are late, call them. If people are talking, call them. You can adapt and improvise in immersive theater. Having a script but being able to break away from it is a lot of fun for me. It tickles me.”

Wren Robin (Emily Yetter), Vern Schultz (Chandler Cummings) and Lulie Stanwyck (Noelle Urbano) protect breakfast in “Five Lesbians Eating Quiche.”

(New LA shapes)

There's an underlying tension to the show because it walks a line between silliness and gravity. Ultimately, “5 Lesbians” is about finding joy in dark times, and moments inspire awkward laughs, like jokes about gay marriage being legal in four years (1960) or Ginny Cadbury (Jessica Damouni) devouring a quiche in a way that leaves nothing to the imagination. But it's also a show about how stressful moments can build vulnerability and community, as the entire church practically gasped when Wren Robbin (Emily Yetter) finally let her hair down and expressed who she really was.

“Even when we did it when I was in college, Trump had just won, so it seems like it's still relevant,” Pattullo says. The timing, he says, makes it a very fun play to perform.

Pattullo will sometimes, depending on cast availability, take on a role on the show. It's a chance, he says, to amplify the madness of the play, which he believes helps put the audience at ease and makes the difficult subject matter easier to digest. She tries to create the most extravagant story possible as she tells the guests one by one how her husband died.

“My story was a raccoon attack,” he says. “Because my husband thought the raccoon was acting strangely, like he was a spy or something. It was just stupid.”

Or it was proof of how immersive theater can delight when it deviates from the script.