The Cake

By: Yaki Margulies

In the turbulent political climate of 2017 comes “The Cake,” a timely play by Bekah Brunstetter (This Is Us, Switched At Birth) about love, cultural upbringings and tolerance.  And cake.  The play makes its world premiere on July 1st, 2017 at the Atwater Village Theatre in Los Angeles, as part of the Echo Theater Company, directed by Jennifer Chambers.

The play centers around Debra Jo Rupp (That ‘70s Show) as Della, a baker of cakes in North Carolina and soon-to-be contestant on The Great American Baking Show (with Morrison Keddie as the stellar voice of George, the saucy British TV host).  Enter Shannon Lucio (True Blood, American Horror Story) as Jen, the daughter of Della’s deceased best friend, returning home for a special event.  Jen is getting married and she wants Della to create her wedding cake.  Della is overjoyed until she learns that Jen is getting married to Macy (Carolyn Ratteray), a liberal New York girl Della had met earlier (during a fairly poor first impression).  Suddenly, Della is too busy to make a wedding cake for the couple.  Jen says she understands, but is clearly hurt and leaves the cake shop.

After an argument where Macy doesn’t understand why Jen wants to get married in her bigoted hometown (it was a promise to her dead mother, Jen tries to explain), Macy writes a nasty article about Della’s prejudices and releases it to the general internet where commenters immediately pounce on the elderly baker.  Della gets a call from The Great American Baking Show telling her she has been disqualified from participating due to her discriminatory actions.  It’s bad press for the show.  Della is naturally heartbroken about being barred from this wonderful opportunity.

Della discusses the issue with her husband, Tim (played by Joe Hart, who recently appeared in the Broadway production of Bonnie and Clyde).  Tim states firmly that his wife shouldn’t make a wedding cake for the lesbian couple, but Della and Tim have been experiencing some marital troubles of their own and makes her question her husband’s rigid opinions.  They were unable to conceive once upon a time and now she can’t remember the last time her husband wanted to have sex with her.  After a few more heart-to-heart conversations with Jen, and with Macy, Della begins to rethink her biblical outlook.

Injecting a bit of surrealist fun into the production, we occasionally see Della’s daydreams where she is a contestant on The Great American Baking Show, speaking to the disembodied voice of the judge (clearly a parallel to the voice of God) who reprimands her moral decisions and investigates her ethical uncertainty. Thus, she is put on trial (in her fantasy cooking show).  He also probes into Della’s sexual hangups and secret desires.  It’s a clever and concise way of delving deeper into the character’s motivations and conflicts, allowing the audience an energetic ticket into her subconscious.

In general, Jennifer Chamber’s direction in “The Cake” is straightforward and practical, with a touch of the whimsy, opening up the text and characters in an accessible way.  Much like the set, which is realistic, unenclosed and familiar (featuring the cake shop and two stylistically separate bedrooms), the directing meets expectations and never distracts.

The acting in the production is often “multi-cam” big, especially the opening monologue about baking, which comes off as a little trite and hammy.  The characters can feel a bit like caricatures, particularly Macy who is the liberal, Brooklyn-based, gluten-free, condescending, blogging environmentalist who overstays her welcome in most scenes.  The ending tries to tie up all of the loose ends with a scene as satisfying as one of Della’s cakes, but seems awfully saccharine and a touch condescending.

While the play is thankfully short (ninety minutes with no intermission), there were moments where it dragged and felt much longer.  However, despite its obvious and clumsy execution, “The Cake” has admirable intentions.  It’s easy to preach to the choir, but it’s more impressive if you can generate enough empathy between vastly different groups of people (with contrasting values) to allow for a more open-minded, constructive discussion of sensitive issues.  And maybe this is something that “The Cake” accomplishes, especially among the older theater going crowd.  Della is a well-rounded character that portrays bible-thumping conservatives as real people with which we “city liberals” can truly sympathize.  I didn’t love the play, but maybe it wasn’t written for me.  It’s never a bad thing, though, if a work of art can generate a more tolerant space for an exchange of viewpoints.

Over the next year, “The Cake” is scheduled to open at the Playmakers Repertory Company in Chapel Hill, NC, the Warehouse Theater in Greenville, SC, the La Jolla Playhouse and Houston’s Alley Theater, where I’m sure it will delight audiences and hopefully open minds – even in its conspicuousness to open minds and cash in on the buzzword social issues of the moment.