Big Laughs and Tenderness in Tantrum Theater's Regional Premiere of The Cake

Big Laughs and Tenderness in Tantrum Theater’s Regional Premiere of The Cake

June 22, 2018 10:45 pm

Big Laughs and Tenderness in Tantrum Theater’s Regional Premiere of The Cake

A scene from The Cake. Photo by Daniel Winters.

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Even-handedness and fair consideration are goals we should all strive for and some of the hardest virtues to master. As difficult as they are to achieve in life, they’re twice as hard to grasp in drama without the story falling apart. That difficulty makes Bekah Brunstetter’s sweet slice of urban-meets-rural life, The Cake, so refreshing. The Cake opened the Tantrum Theater season earlier this month in a production directed by Shelley Delaney.

The Cake centers on Della (Merri Biechler), known throughout her North Carolina town for elaborate confections, running a cake shop that struggles to break even. Della’s husband Tim (Brian David Evans) runs a plumbing shop and provides a comic foil to Della.

A scene from The Cake. Photo by Daniel Winters.

Della hopes her luck will change with an upcoming contestant run on The Big American Bake Off when her best friend’s daughter, Jen (Constance Leeson), comes in from New York. Before Della sees Jen, she meets Jen’s fiancée, Macy (Kelsey Elyse Rodriguez). Della didn’t know Jen was gay and can’t bring herself to say yes to Jen’s request for a wedding cake.

The tight 90 minutes circle around Della’s torment at feeling like she’s not doing right and loving the person she loves like a daughter while trying to live by the rules laid down for her over the years. Jen tries to reconcile her honest love of this place where she grew up and this person who was a second mother to her while dredging up pain from her deceased mother she never worked through.

Brunstetter understands the appeal of this place and these characters and the real hurt they inflict on each other. The play’s threaded with uproarious one-liners, especially in funny, lively fantasy sequences where Della conflates her version of a loving but vengeful god with the british host of the baking show she hopes to compete on, but it never sacrifices who these characters are for an easy way out.

Shelley Delaney’s direction strikes the right balance between sweetness, light, and density without having to resort to a cheap gag or an easy out. Her use of Eduardo Sicangco’s fully realized and well-appointed set with a bake shop and two bedrooms on either side gives the cast plenty to play off and subtly reminds us all how much of what’s important in life happens either at work or in the bedroom.

Constance Leeson and Merri Biechler in Tantrum Theater’s production of “The Cake”. Photo by Daniel Winters.

The cast is stellar. Biechler understands the joys and the goodness of Della and plays the friction of finding a reason to question the way her world has always worked as well as anyone I’ve seen on stage. Leeson’s Jen is a virtuosic performance of a person coming more into their own, as messy and painful and hilarious and gleeful as that is. Rodriguez and Evans give vital nuance and keep their characters from turning into plot devices or sounding boards.

The Cake is a perfect, sweet, summery confection with just enough dashes of sour and savory to linger in the audience’s memory.

The Cake runs through June 24 with shows at 7:30 pm Tuesday through Thursday, 8:00 pm Friday and Saturday, and 2:00 pm Sunday. For tickets and more info, visit tantrumtheater.org.

About the Author

Richard Sanford is a freelance contributor to Columbus Underground covering the city's vibrant theatre scene. You can find him seeking inspiration at a variety of bars, concert halls, performance spaces, museums and galleries.

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