Play treats both sides of debate on gay marriage with empathy
Like frosting between layers, a baker is stuck between faith and family in “The Cake.”
Tantrum Theater will launch its third professional summer season with the comedy by Bekah Brunstetter, a writerproducer of the NBC series “This Is Us.”
The play will open on Friday in the Abbey Theatre of Dublin.
“It's character-driven comedy, with richly drawn characters,” said director Shelley Delaney, an Ohio University theater professor.
“What I love about the play is that I find myself empathizing with both sides,” Delaney said.
The 90-minute one-act revolves around middleaged Della Brady, a baker who owns Della’s Sweets, a cake shop in WinstonSalem, North Carolina.
At first, Della is happy to bake a wedding cake for Jen, the daughter of Della’s best friend. Jen grew up in Winston-Salem but is now living in New York.
Then Della learns that Jen’s groom will be a bride. What: “The Cake” Who: Tantrum Theater Where: Abbey Theater, Dublin Recreation Center, 5600 Post Road, Dublin Contact: 614-793-5700, tantrumtheater.org Showtimes: 7:30 p.m. Thursday (preview), Tuesday through June 14 and June 19-21; 8 p.m. Friday, Saturday, June 15-16 and June 22; 2 p.m. Sunday, June 17 and June 24; and 2 and 8 p.m. June 23 Tickets: $29.50, or $27 for senior citizens, $12 students; “pay what you will” for the preview
“The comedy and the conflict ensue because Della is a conservative Christian who has known Jen since she was born,” Delaney said.
Merri Biechler plays Della, the wife of Tim (Brian Evans).
“She’s warm, bubbly and inviting. ... a woman of faith who has a devoted husband and lots of love in her life,” said Biechler, an Ohio University lecturer.
“She likes to bring people together over cake, ... but she faces a conflict in trying to stay true to her faith while also loving her best friend’s daughter. She really is struggling to come to the right answer,” Biechler said.
A playwright, whose piece “Tammy Faye’s Final Audition” was produced by Tantrum in 2016, Biechler praised “The Cake” as a heartfelt comedy with sympathetic characters.
“They all have a generosity of spirit,” she said.
“There is no villain in this, no person completely right or completely wrong.”
Constance Leeson plays Jen.
“She’s really caught between two worlds,” Leeson said.
“Jen views Della as her second mother ... and her (late) mom always talked about Della making her wedding cake. ... Now she has to make sure that her remaining family knows who she really is.”
Leeson, a Canton native and Columbus resident, found it easy to identify with the characters.
“I grew up with both sides,” she said.
“The play is so touching to me because it doesn’t demonize anyone but gives everyone a very human story.”
First staged in 2017 in Los Angeles and North Carolina, the play has received good reviews.
“‘Tapping Brunstetter’s beloved hometown roots in a North Carolina conservative Baptist community, ... ‘The Cake’ explores human conflict from an insightful, slightly offbeat perch with understanding, respect and compassion for opposing points of view — and without dumbing down or sentimentalizing its characters,” critic Philip Brandes wrote in his 2017 review for the Los Angeles Times.
Brunstetter was loosely inspired by a Supreme Court case over a Christian baker who refused to decorate a cake for a gay couple’s wedding because it violated his religious beliefs.
“Brunstetter has a natural, easy comic sensibility and an empathy for all sides,” Delaney said.
“We tend to write off people we disagree with as the Other, but this playwright says: Break bread with them, eat cake with them, sit down and look at someone else with the possibility in the air that you might love them.”