review: the cake

Slice of life: The Cake (photo by Brittney Werner)

​The Cake @ Marquette Theatre at Loyola University
Review by Paul Oswell

The Great British Bake Off, in which amateur bakers make increasingly elaborate confections in a massive tent, has become a cultural juggernaut over its fourteen (count ‘em!) seasons. Despite the main action sequences consisting of people glaring at rising dough through an oven window before being lambasted by someone called Paul Hollywood (the culinary equivalent of Alex Jones), it’s an undeniable sensation. 

The show somewhat informs this gateau-centric play, written by Bekah Brunstette. The Cake is also inspired by events from the infamous court case in which a baker refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. The set up sounds incendiary, but it’s a relatively fluffy 90 minutes, without any dry legal wranglings; more a comedic vanilla sponge than a challenging ethical soufflé.

We open on Della Brady (played by Lara Grice), a bakery owner in everytown North Carolina. She loves cakes but hates self-expression. When she talks about the necessity of mindlessly following instructions, it’s not a tough philosophical jump to infer that as a brainwashed fundamentalist Christian, this is her ethos about all aspects of life, not just baking. Stick to the rules, don’t be different, especially regarding sexuality. 

Conflict arrives in the shape of Jen (Joy Donze), and Macy (Lorene Chesley), two women in town to make wedding arrangements and seek out Della’s confectionary skills. Jen is the daughter of Della’s recently-deceased friend, and though she’s initially flattered, Della all but spills her emotional sprinkles once she discovers that the women are in fact getting married to each other. 

Jen and Macy live in New York City, and are therefore Not To Be Trusted. Jen is an all-American local girl, though, and can therefore code switch (Macy challenges her accent changing at one point) to move among the locals without causing wrinkles. Macy is a progressive black woman with strong opinions, rubbing up against Della’s sensibilities despite her protestations of “not seeing color”. 

Much frantic deliberation follows, as Macy and Jen contend with new pressures on their relationship, and Della parses things out with her dim husband Tim (Mike Harkins), a sentient Bass Pro fishing hat. Della also descends into quasi-madness, and has multiple paranoia-fuelled hallucinations, imagining herself to be a contestant on The Bake Off. Larry Herron’s disembodied TV presenter initially welcomes her, then goads her about her bigotry, her attitudes about the human condition put under the spotlight. 

The performances across the board are punchy and entertaining, especially Lara Grice as Della, who has to carry much of the comedic heft by herself. Even with just the audience as foils, her monologues are deft and consistently funny, and her busying herself with cake decoration as she nails the comedic timing is genuinely impressive. 

The other characters - while all very well portrayed by a committed cast - receive slightly less attention to detail, and sometimes seem like the half-constructed cakes that adorn Della’s bakery. Their one-note characterizations are tasty enough but feel store-bought rather than home cooked. 

The script, for example, serves up Macy as the kind of gluten-free, New York progressive yelling about oat milk and the patriarchy that only really exists in the media. I feel like tipping a few extra ounces of nuance into the mixing bowl would have rounded out the characters beyond sitcom level. 

All that said, there’s still a lot to love about sitcoms, and you’ll honestly find plenty of laughs to tuck into here - the rowdy opening night audience were definitely entertained. The colorful set design, evocative lighting and costumes work really well (kudos to Riley Trahant, Liam Gardner and Jahise LeBoeuf respectively) and Elizabeth Newcomer’s direction doesn’t falter. 

It’s an even-handed, feelgood production, with the stubborn idealists and the religious zealots all learning something in the end. If you want to kick off Pride month with a lighthearted romp, then this is a solid choice, the performances being the cherries atop a familiar, easily-digestible story. A signature bake, if you will.
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The Cake plays at Marquette Theater at Loyola University through June 16th, click here for ticket info 
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