In the opening moments of Bekah Brunstetter’s The Cake, we meet Della — a good-natured Southern gal and baker extraordinaire who is eager to share the secret of her success.
“See, what you have to do is really, truly follow the directions,” she tells us with a knowing smile. It’s a simple philosophy that clearly applies to more than just baking for this devout Christian and dutiful wife. But things get complicated when Della is asked to provide the cake for a same-sex wedding involving her best friend’s daughter — a young woman who Della clearly loves like her own family.
It may seem like an obvious ripped-from-the-headlines formula, but Brunstetter — who grew up in a conservative family in North Carolina — clearly knows a thing or two about these characters. Perhaps best known for her work on the NBC drama This Is Us, Brunstetter displays a real gift for dialogue — she serves up some delicious one-liners. But she also takes great care to humanize the issues at hand without villainizing the people involved. In fact, what makes The Cake most satisfying is that it’s not just about Della’s beliefs on same-sex marriage. It’s actually more about how those beliefs have shaped her own life and marriage, and how we all must navigate the intricate realities of unconditional love.
That’s a lot to tackle in just 90 minutes, but with its excellent production of The Cake — onstage at TPAC’s Johnson Theater through Oct. 30 — Nashville Rep gets right to the heart of the matter, providing a sweet comedy that could open the door to tough conversations, and perhaps even a bit of empathy.
Director Lauren Shouse leans into the script’s considerable humor while mining the material for honesty and truth. She keeps the action humming along at a crisp pace, offering a marvelous showcase for her outstanding cast.
Megan Murphy Chambers is an absolute delight as Della, delivering her lines with appropriate sass and sparkle. (When her husband Tim insists that a marriage between two women is “just not natural,” Della fires back: “Well, neither is confectioners’ sugar!”) In the hands of a lesser actor, Della could easily slip into well-worn caricature, but Chambers offers a far more tantalizing blend of uncertainty and vulnerability. Yes, she is a brilliant comedian, as demonstrated by her breathless dream sequences with an unseen British baking judge (voiced with perfect snark by Jonah M. Jackson). She also serves up one particularly uproarious scene that may leave you questioning everything you think you know about buttercream frosting. But it’s actually in exploring her character’s deeper questions of inherited shame and unspoken desires that Chambers really shines.
Christopher Strand also succeeds as Tim, wisely sidestepping the standard “good ol’ boy” in favor of a more realistic brand of restraint and occasional self-doubt. Mariah Parris gives a thoughtful and often tender performance as Jen, capturing her character’s anguish as she struggles to reconcile the lessons of her childhood with what her heart knows to be true. And as Jen’s fiancée Macy, Maya Antoinette Riley enters the stage like a lightning rod, brimming with strength and uncompromising principles. But as she lectures Della on the evils of both processed sugar and bigotry, we realize she’s nursing a few wounds of her own.
Scenic designer Joonhee Park draws us into Della’s world with a cozy little cake shop outfitted with plenty of homey kitsch, along with a clever pair of oversized drawers that open up to reveal the respective couples’ beds. Alexis Grigsby’s costumes help establish the characters, and Phillip Franck deserves mention for his evocative lighting — especially when taking us into Della’s wild imagination.
At a time when we often feel completely divided by politics and estranged from our neighbors and loved ones, The Cake asks us to open our hearts and walk through all the messy emotions together. As Shouse tells us in her director’s note, the hope is that this play “will help start the hard conversations that lead to growth.”
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