Bentertainments (Toilet Fire; Aloha, Aloha, or When I Was Queen; and Karen, I Said)

Bentertainments collects three solo-ish works by writer and performer Eliza Bent. Bent’s works are “bent” indeed, limboing and o’erleaping theatrical conventions in genre-defying feats in the lineage of Spaulding Grey, Pee-Wee Herman, Lily Tomlin, and Fran Leibowitz. In Toilet Fire, excrement is exalted in a kaleidoscopic ritual that ultimately asks: How can we best relieve suffering? Aloha, Aloha, or When I Was Queen examines a home video of 13-year-old Bent cosplaying the last monarch of Hawaii Queen Liliuokalani before transforming into an excavation of cultural appropriation, cringe, and personal history. In Karen, I Said—produced originally on Zoom—Bent trisects into Karen, Karyn, and Karin in an absurd satire examining wokeness, whiteness, and COVID-19 era cultural shifts. Across this three-course Bento box of a book, Bent’s work is playful, linguistically rich, and incisive. Bent understands that solo doesn’t mean alone, and even when spilling her guts, Bent demands that audiences intersperse their laughter with an examination of their own bowels, their own past, and the Karens inside all of us.