The Cake
Bekah Brunstetter
City Lights Theater Company
For Della, the ingredients for the perfect cake are two: “You gotta get the real stuff” and “you gotta follow the directions.” That means “full fat” and “not your eggs that were ever caged” or “ever went to the movies,” and it means “give your time and your worship to directions.” Doing so — according to this soon-to-be contestant of TV’s Great American Bake-off — will guarantee a “cake you take a nap in, that you can crawl inside, and that you could die for.”
When this bakery shop owner in Winston, North Carolina discovers that her deceased best friend’s daughter is returning home from New York to plan her wedding and wants her to bake the big day’s cake, Della is ecstatic — that is until she meets the other half of the cake-to-be’s topping: A woman. It is then that everything she had been taught that is “real” in the “directions” she “worships” as written in her Bible lead her to a heart-breaking conflict involving faith, friendship, and frosting … and lead her to say, “No.”
While headlines and subsequent court cases of similar refusals in the past several years have sent emotions and accusations flying on both sides of the issue, playwright Bekah Brunstetter has boldly taken a different stand: Lower the temperature, mix in some humanizing of all involved, and sprinkle a bit of rarely found empathy among those in violent disagreement. The final result out of her creative oven, The Cake, is now on stage at City Lights Theater Company in an engaging, thought-provoking, and thoroughly entertaining mix of high drama and laugh-out-loud comedy. There is nothing ‘off-the-shelf’ or ‘trial-and-error’ in the fresh, fervent, and fun ingredients Director Lisa Mallette stirs into her delicious production with its Grade A cast and creative team. And the final product is definitely worth Bay Area audiences devouring to its fullest.
For the rest of my review, please proceed to Talkin’Broadway.
Rating: 5 E
A Theatre Eddys Best Bet Production
The Cake continues through June 8, 2025, in a ninety-minute (no intermission) production by City Lights Theater Company, , 529 S. 2nd Street, San Jose. Tickets are available online at www.cltc.org .
Photo Credits: Christian Pizzirani
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