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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.
Playwright/performer Eliza Bent is the love-grandchild of Lily Tomlin, Pee Wee Herman, and Mr. Peanut, whose Bentertainments include solo works Karen, I Said, Toilet Fire (Time Out New York Critics’ Pick), Aloha, Aloha, or When I Was Queen; full-length plays The Regulars, Indeed, friend!, The Hotel Colors (L Magazine’s best of 2013); adaptations The Beyonce, (Payne Award for Excellence), She of the Voice; and hybrid affairs, Bonnie’s Last Flight, Real Talk / Kip Talk, Blue Wizard / Black Wizard (published by Sam French). Bent’s shows have been developed/ workshopped/ commissioned/ produced at the Abrons Arts Center, Clubbed Thumb, the Bushwick Starr, JACK, the New Ohio, the Atlantic Theatre, and New York Theatre Workshop’s Next Door Series. Residencies: MacDowell, SPACE on Ryder Farm “Working Farm,” Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Workspace, New Georges, Target Margin, Casa Zia Lina, Pilot Balloon, Goodman Theatre Playwrights Unit and Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor. As an actor, Bent has performed in pint-sized New York theatres, regionally, and toured internationally with the Obie award-winning ensemble Half Straddle. Bent was a senior editor at American Theatre magazine from 2006-2015. Bent’s writing has appeared in Time Out New York, the Village Voice, HEEB, the Brooklyn Rail, TDF’s online magazine Stages, Emergency INDEX, and ELLE. Bent has a BA in philosophy and an MFA in playwriting from Brooklyn College. Associate Professor of Instruction at Northwestern University’s Radio TV and Film department.