When Della (Debra Jo Rupp), a North Carolina Baker and devout Christian, is asked to bake a wedding cake for her best friend’s daughter, she is overjoyed. But that joy is short-lived when she learns that the intended is another bride and realizes she is faced with an agonizing choice between faith and family. Struggling to reconcile her deeply-held belief in “traditional marriage” and the love she has for the woman she helped raise, Della finds herself in strange new territory.
Inspired by a story still in the headlines, this marvelously funny new play by Bekah Brunstetter (This is Us, Switched at Birth), directed by Jennifer Chambers, is proof that love is the key ingredient in creating common ground.
The Geffen Playhouse is proud to present the Echo Theater Company’s world premiere production as part of its commitment to celebrating the vibrant Los Angeles intimate theater community
As the story evolves moving from the bakery to the two bedrooms at opposite ends of the set, we soon learn of the lives, difficulties, and experience-altering shame felt by not only Review: THE CAKE Proves That Love is Always the Key Ingredient in LifeJen and Macy, but also between Della and her plumber husband Tim (Rod McLachlan, the only actor not from the Echo Theater's original cast), an evenly more devoutly religious person than she is. It is during their scenes together as they attempt to put the spark back into their long-ago forgotten physical relationship that the play takes off to the heights of comedy. Just be prepared to laugh hysterically when you see how they use buttercream frosting or mashed potatoes to ignite the flame!
So, thankfully, none of the characters is too outrageous, too broad. No one is mocked, no position is disparaged. Still, any way you slice it, “The Cake” should be seen for Rupp's performance as a woman struggling to reconcile what we as a society have learned with what we need to be learning. The rest is the icing.
What Brunstetter has done so effectively is create characters with such specificity that they never seem like mouthpieces for the Christian right or the liberal elite. They are flawed, complicated people. And that's what allows us (whichever side of the divide we occupy) to understand the other side without generalizing or demonizing.
Director Jennifer Chambers gets the tone just right. There are big moments of slapstick silliness involving food that open up into poignance. Ms. Chambers skillfully manages these changes in mood.
It's sweet and funny at times, in fact, I was relieved to be laughing, due to the seriousness of the subject manner. However, the play crumbles a times with it's pacing, and silly semi-naked food scenes.
As the story evolves moving from the bakery to the two bedrooms at opposite ends of the set, we soon learn of the lives, difficulties, and experience-altering shame felt by not only Review: THE CAKE Proves That Love is Always the Key Ingredient in LifeJen and Macy, but also between Della and her plumber husband Tim (Rod McLachlan, the only actor not from the Echo Theater's original cast), an evenly more devoutly religious person than she is. It is during their scenes together as they attempt to put the spark back into their long-ago forgotten physical relationship that the play takes off to the heights of comedy. Just be prepared to laugh hysterically when you see how they use buttercream frosting or mashed potatoes to ignite the flame!
So, thankfully, none of the characters is too outrageous, too broad. No one is mocked, no position is disparaged. Still, any way you slice it, “The Cake” should be seen for Rupp's performance as a woman struggling to reconcile what we as a society have learned with what we need to be learning. The rest is the icing.
What Brunstetter has done so effectively is create characters with such specificity that they never seem like mouthpieces for the Christian right or the liberal elite. They are flawed, complicated people. And that's what allows us (whichever side of the divide we occupy) to understand the other side without generalizing or demonizing.
Director Jennifer Chambers gets the tone just right. There are big moments of slapstick silliness involving food that open up into poignance. Ms. Chambers skillfully manages these changes in mood.
It's sweet and funny at times, in fact, I was relieved to be laughing, due to the seriousness of the subject manner. However, the play crumbles a times with it's pacing, and silly semi-naked food scenes.
