‘5 Lesbians’ a rebuke to DeSantis’ vilification of fringe

When Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed all arts funding in the State of Florida this past June, he blamed two fringe “sex festivals” for his decision. Now, the Alliance for the Arts is producing an encore of 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche as a rebuke to his vilification of fringe. While it originated in Chicago, the Andrew Hobgood and Evan Linder dark comedy won honors as Best Overall Production at the 2012 NYC International Fringe Festival.

The play is set in 1956, before the women’s movement and during a time when everyone was on edge about the Russians and the threat of nuclear war. The Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein are having their annual quiche breakfast. As the show unfolds, the ladies extol the glories of the egg (read “ova”) while indulging the sapphic allusion to quiche-eating. But as the assembled “widows” await the announcement of the society’s prize-winning quiche, atomic bomb sirens sound. Has the Communist threat come to pass? How will the “widows” respond as their idyllic town and lifestyle faces attacks?

While sexual innuendo abounds and the girls do kiss a time or two, there is no sex in this fringe offering. The show has flourished and endured because it contains saliant observations about societal pressures to conform, the nature of repression and the universal quest to be who we are and love who we choose.

Like 5 Lesbians, many popular and successful shows debuted in fringe.

A case in point is Six: The Musical, which is currently blowing the roof off the Lena Horne Theatre. If that weren’t enough, the Grammy Award-nominated first-ever live recording, Six: Live on Opening Night, has enjoyed tens of thousands of downloads on Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes and Amazon Music, and is now available as a CD as well. Six got its start in 2017 at Edinburgh Fringe when a group of Cambridge University students put on a musical in a 100-seat hotel conference room that imagined Henry VIII’s wives as a 21st Century girl group. They wrote the script in less than two hours!

Cypress Lake Center for the Arts performed Six to sell-out crowds in April and North Fort Myers High will produce the show in October.

The Drowsy Chaperone (Bob Martin and Don McKellar) premiered at the Toronto Fringe Festival in 1999 and went on to Broadway in 2006. It was produced locally by Fort Myers Theatre this past February/March and by Creative Theater Workshop in 2020.

Da Kink in My Hair (Trey Anthony) was part of the 2001 Toronto Fringe Festival before going on to enjoy successful runs in the U.S. and U.K. along with a Global TV series that ran from 2007 to 2009, and My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding (David Hein and Irene Sankoff) debuted at the Toronto Fringe Festival in 2009 before going on to enjoy an extensive North American tour.

Locally, Naples playwright and veteran actor Frank Blocker won Best-in-Venue honors at last June’s 2nd Annual Fringe Fort Myers for Stabilized Not Controlled, a 60-minute comedic tour de force in which he plays 17 different characters, and which he reprised as a benefit on August 30th to help the Alliance make up some of the budget shortfall that resulted from DeSantis’ arts funding veto.

As for performers who were “discovered” at fringe, Emma Thompson (the only person to ever win an Oscar for both writing and acting), Hugh Laurie, Robin Williams, Mike Myers, Rachel Weisz (who won an Oscar for her role in The Constant Gardener and became a cult phenom in the role of Evelyn Carnahan in The Mummy and The Mummy Returns) and former Daily Show host Trevor Noah all got their start at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Since its debut in 2012, 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche has gone on to attain cult status.

It has also received considerable critical acclaim:

• “I wouldn’t be surprised if 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche, like The 39 Steps, becomes a mainstream favorite of theater troupes around the country…skillfully, lovingly, and deliciously prepared.” – Chicago Stage Standard
• “Expanded from an award-winning sketch, this wonderfully ridiculous scenario delivers what it promises. This ensemble piece is smart, sharp and hysterically funny.” – Time Out Chicago
• “A delectable portrait of sublimated Sapphism…[5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche] dishes up high-spirited theatrical comfort food with a bit of a saucy kick.” – Chicago Tribune
• “The bitingly funny story of friendship, pastry and forbidden love has the audience in stitches.” – Vancouver Sun

The Alliance produced 5 Lesbians in 2019, and the current iteration returns Lucy Sundby, Anna Grilli and Karen Goldberg, with Stephanie Davis again directing the show. Joining them are Shelley Sanders and Madelaine Weymouth.

5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche opens in the Foulds Theatre on September 5th.

August 25, 2024.