Renaissance Serves Multi-Layered ‘Cake’ in the Theaterworks’ New Home

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Photo by Ross Zentner

The Cake - Tara Mallen

Tara Mallen

This month, Renaissance Theaterworks showcases its first full-length play in its new home, 255 S. Water St. (also home to Next Act Theatre). The company opens its 29th season with a thoughtful, heart-tugging rendition of Bekah Brunstetter’s The Cake. Despite its simplistic title, the play delves deep into the psyches of women who strive to honor their backgrounds while remaining open to those who would challenge their beliefs. It’s a comedy that really stretches the imagination, as well as confronting one’s beliefs.

The Cake pits Della, the religious owner of a small-town bakery in North Carolina, against forces of social change. More specifically, a young woman named Jen (April Paul) returns to her North Carolina home to plan her wedding to New York journalist Macy (Courtney Marie Tucker). Jen’s mother has passed away and she wants, more than anything, to have her mom’s best friend, Della (Tara Mallen), bake the cake for their ceremony. In doing so, she believes that part of her mother’s spirit will also be present at the ceremony.

Tension arises soon after Macy and Jen announce their intentions to Della in her beautifully decorated bake shop (set by Steve Barnes). In colors drawn from a baby’s nursery—lemon yellow, pale pink and light blue—the bakery serves as a focal point for the production. It’s easily one of the loveliest sets one will see this theater season.

It’s clear that while Della is ecstatic at seeing Jen again, she isn’t so crazy about the news regarding her intentions. Della hems and haws at the prospect of baking a cake for a ceremony that may not align with her Christian principles.

If this sounds like something out of the daily news, it actually is. In 2018, a Colorado baker won a partial victory in the U.S. Supreme Court when he refused to make a cake for a same-sex couple. (To be fair, Jack Phillips, the Colorado bake shop’s owner, offered to make cookies, cupcakes—anything but a formal wedding cake for the couple.) After Phillips’ decision was upheld by the court, he was soon faced with a similar situation. A transgender woman asked Phillips to make a cake that was pink on the inside and blue on the outside, in order to honor her gender transition. Again, Phillips refused to produce a cake for the occasion. Phillips went on trial for this second offense in March 2021 and was later fined $500 for violating Colorado’s anti-discrimination laws.

Playwright Bekah Brunstetter (a writer and producer for the TV show “This Is Us”), adds another ingredient to the mix. She folds in a longtime relationship between bride, baker and the bride’s deceased mother. This makes it deceptively difficult for Della to turn her back on someone she has basically known since birth.

Della, a God-fearing Christian, thinks through her own beliefs and how they hold up against a new cultural reality. She also consults her husband, Tim (Sam D. White). He’s a plumber and meat-and-potatoes kind of guy who can’t wrap his mind around the fact that a woman he actually knows (Jen) is romantically interested in women instead of men.

While both Della and Tim could have been reduced to stereotypes, the playwright attempts to create an even playing field. While the play’s overall bias is with the wedding couple, the playwright gives this older, Southern couple a chance to speak their minds without reducing them to a couple of rednecks.

Although The Cake focuses on a serious topic, it contains more laugh-out-loud humor than one would imagine.

Della is as old-fashioned about cake ingredients as she is about life. In her opening speech, she divulges that the secret of cake baking is “full fat.” To her, this means using only butter, milk, flour and eggs. No “tofu butter and nut milk” for her, she says. As Della, Tara Mallen comes off as a sweet-tempered, middle-aged Southern lady. One cannot help but think of her as someone channeling Paula Deen. Her bubbly personality has made her more than a local favorite. She informs Macy that she has been asked to participate on the “Great American Baking Show” on national television. In a series of fantasy sequences, Della interacts with one of the show’s judges before the show begins.

As Macy, Courtney Marie Tucker comes closest to playing the “villain” in this production. She flinches at a number of Della’s platitudes and refuses to taste some cake that Della offers. In general, she is having none of the “Southern charm” that emanates from this rural backwater. Macy is brutally frank about wanting to return to their home in the Bronx as soon as possible.

April Paul delivers an impressive performance as Jen, a woman torn between her love for Macy and her deep feelings for where she grew up. She is determined to have a fairytale wedding in her hometown with money that her mother left her, no matter what Macy says.

The only male member of the cast, Sam D. White, creates a very believable character in Tim, Della’s longtime husband. When Della starts talking about intimate, personal topics, White is terrific at demonstrating how uncomfortable he feels. Yet, a subsequent scene reveals that Tim’s heart is in the right place, even if he demonstrates it in an incredibly clumsy way.

This cunning playwright refuses to resolve the play’s big question—will Della bake the wedding cake or not?­—until the play’s final moments. Under the guidance of astute director Suzan Fete, a Renaissance founding member, the talented cast keeps the audience guessing—and entertained. A sudden twist at the play’s end may surprise some observers. For others, it will make perfect sense.

Through Nov. 14 at Next Act Theatre, 255 S. Water St. For tickets, click online at r-t-w.com, or call 414-278-0765. COVID-19 protocols will apply for audiences and staff members. Some adult subject matter may not be suitable for young children.

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Photo by Ross Zentner

The Cake

April Paul and Courtney Tucker

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Photo by Ross Zentner

The Cake

Tara Mallen and Sam White

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