Eggers Can’t Be Choosers—Or Can They?

Eggers Can’t Be Choosers—Or Can They?

by Allison Fradkin

Lucy Ricardo: Did you ever wish there was something else to marry besides men?

Ethel Mertz: Often.

They really were pioneer women, those two, and not just because of the accidental

advocating they did for marriage equality.

In the 1950s, women were cruisin’ for a…well, choosin’, and Lucy and Ethel delicately

defended the idea that women should have their voices and choices respected.

Well, who better to take our LGBT-cue from than a couple of intrepid and innovative gal

pals?

In the fall of 2023, Mosaic Players has chosen to present 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche*,

a screwball comedy that’s zippier than a conveyor belt whipping nuggets of chocolate

past a panicky redhead and her hapless sidekick.

In the play, the comestible of choice is a quiche, and its consumers are members of the

Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein, a coterie of egg-headed

widows who make the frightful but delightful discovery that the bloom is off the heteros.

5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche is a seriously scintillating satire of women’s roles in the

1950s, enlisting its characters in a caricature of the sexism, heterosexism,

consumerism, and Communism exuberant in the era.

As an antidote to the nefarious Red Scare, Mosaic Players will be collaborating with a

company whose designation is considerably more multifarious: Violet Surprise Theatre.

Violet Surprise shares Mosaic’s mission of presenting plays that embrace equity,

equality, and empathy; are relevant to and representative of our audiences; and, in the

case of this production, guarantee all involved a gay old time.

5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche marks my Artistic Directorial debut. I appeared in Mosaic Players’ production of Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, and serve as Co-Artistic Director of Violet Surprise Theatre. Iris Sowlat, my other half (theatrically speaking), is slated to direct.

Auditions for lipstick thespians, as well as performance locations (we’re a traveling

troupe) will be announced in late spring.

*rights pending, not that there’s anything wrong with that