Do you like quiche? Do you like immersive theatre? Do you like outrageous comedies fused with social commentary in the form of a nuclear apocalypse? Then 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche, now having its Los Angeles premiere via New Forms LA, will fill that savory spot just right, even if its pacing suffers a bit near the end before revving right back up for a fantastic finish.

It’s 1956 and The Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein are having their annual quiche breakfast. As the assembled “widows” await the announcement of the society’s prize-winning quiche, the atomic bomb sirens sound! Has the Communist threat come to pass? How will the “widows” respond as their idyllic town and lifestyle faces attacks? Winner of the 2012 NYC International Fringe Festival as Best Overall Production, 5 Lesbians Eating A Quiche is a tasty recipe of hysterical laughs, sexual innuendoes, unsuccessful repressions, and delicious discoveries.

I’m usually not an avid theatre-goer when it comes to immersive theatre and more often than not, I will find a weak excuse not to attend any. I wish I have a compelling reason for this but it’s simply because I rather want my actors to be over there doing their thing and I as an audience member can just sit in the darkness and stare at them. But upon very strong recommendations to check out this show, now having a remount after their brief yet wildly successful run last November, I mentally prepared myself to engage beyond the voyeuristic and static expectations of being an audience member to being an active participant of the show.

Thankfully, the fears were immediately quashed as director Marissa Pattullo and her ensemble cast do a magnificent job in not only firmly establishing the world but taking care of all their audience members. And regardless of your gender, you as the audience member are immediately part of the honorary Society members of the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein as a widow. For that night, I was no longer “Edward” but “Georgina” (actually, I don’t quite remember what my assigned widow name was as I had three cups of wine that night) and each of the five cast members would come around each table to hear about your stories in how your husband died and if you actually brought quiche for the breakfast.

So in the beginning part of the show, you are very much part of it so if you do decide to attend this production, then come with a fun sense of play as it will enhance your experience. That or have their donation-based wine and cocktails to loosen your nerves up a bit as well as coming with a hungry stomach because each performance will have a hearty amount of quiches provided to everyone. The first thirty minutes will be dedicated to having everyone is settled in and after they’ve enjoyed their food and beverages, the storytelling aspect of the play kicks in.

The dialogue is snappy, witty, and ridiculous in all the right ways with the entire ensemble cast absolutely sending it up with their distinctive characters. Vern Schultz (Chandler Cummings), Ginny Cadbury (Jessica Damouni), Wren Robin (Emily Yetter), Dale Prist (Nicole Ohara), and Lulie Stanwyck (Noelle Urbano) work so well together that their chemistry is undeniably one of the strongest elements going for this play. It isn’t too long before things go into dramatic overdrive with an atomic bomb explosion that renders the entire breakfast event into a case of survival as all the society members are stuck in the dining hall/bunker. Each character has their way of handling the dire circumstances with Damouni’s character handling her stress by devouring her entire quiche pie in the most memorable way possible.

Other wacky shenanigans ensue and at some point, the five ladies come to the realization that they are all lesbians which unfortunately brings the pacing down significantly as it becomes an emotional journey for all the five women to discover. While there is an essential necessity to such revelations, it is jarring with the rest of the play that I wonder if there was a way to keep up the pacing and the absurdity while embracing the LGBTQIA+ heart & soul of the play. Fortunately, the play does remember its absurd campy roots and the finale sends it right back up in quite a finish.

Though this show was most definitely written with all white women in mind, I very much appreciated that you had two global majority actors as part of the cast with Jessica Damouni and Nicole Ohara in parts that weren’t necessarily written for global majority actors. And it is because of that I hope to see even more explorations of diversity in future productions as it gives global majority actors a chance to work on material that is truly universal in nature.

Finally, while this show was written by two men (Evan Linder and Andrew Hobgood), one can argue that the real authors who shaped the play into what it is belongs to Sarah Gitenstein, Mary Hollis Inboden, Meg Johns, Thea Lux, Beth Stelling, and Maari Suorsa. 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche will be having its second limited run from March 19 to 22, and March 26 to 29 at the Glendale Church of the Brethren (626 North Pacific Avenue, Glendale, CA 91203). All shows are at 7pm. Tickets can be bought here. For information on the food and beverages, the wine is from Vinovore and the quiche is from Kitchen Mouse and Just What I Kneaded.