The Cake
Values Clash in City Lights' Masterful Take on Fine Dramedy
By: Victor Cordell - May 19, 2025
The display cabinets of Della’s Bakery brim with brightly colored, gaily decorated cakes. The décor is swathed in pink and sea mist green, conveying all of the innocence of a ‘50s ice cream parlor or sweets shop, when boys were boys, girls were girls, and every socially-accepted person visible in Winston, North Carolina was white. But the fragile patina of this throwback world belies the current era of culture wars and the social clashes that will occur within the bakery’s walls.
On first blush, Bekah Brunstetter’s The Cake appears that it could disappoint the serious theater goer as a frothy comedy with a message produced with the power of a powder puff. But while Director Lisa Mallette and the cast deliver the laughs, a whole raft of timely social issues are explored. Though the playwright’s personal disposition should be clear, this is no landslide to bury the retrograde. Nuance and uncertainties driven by internal conflict rule, and clashes of values are revealed as the character of the characters unfolds.
Jen now lives in Brooklyn, but to honor her deceased mother’s wishes, she returns with her intended to North Carolina to plan a traditional wedding in her hometown. Della, childless and the closest friend of Jen’s mom, acted as Jen’s proxy mother, and the love between these chosen family members is palpable. Obviously, Della would make the cake to celebrate the wedding.
But the anticipated takes a sharp turn when Jen introduces her fiancée, Macy, who happens to be black, agnostic, vegan, and……lesbian – the polar opposite of Della, who is guided by what she considers the teachings of the Bible. Consulting her calendar, she tells the couple that she couldn’t possibly add another major order in October, their wedding month. This incident echoes the U.S. Supreme Court case of a Colorado baker who refused to make a cake for a gay couple. But this pretext of not having time denies accommodating a loved one, not an unknown, random customer.
Luisa Sermol portrays the central character, and she imbues Della with rich complexity. She is thigh-slapping funny even when talking about recipes and has two not-to-be-disclosed-here risqué and hilarious scenes with her husband. Yet as a product of her environment, her Christianity represents a big part of her being. But she will be forced to consider whether the received wisdom from her church and The Book is the correct interpretation; whether it is even true; and whether other factors overtake the righteousness determined several thousand years ago by a people different from ours in so many ways.
Della prides herself on her craft, and one funny thread concerns her being a candidate for the reality show, The Great American Bake Off. In these recurring episodes, she talks to an unseen voice, and some of the racy communication makes you wonder if this whole sequence is in Della’s mind. But like everything else in The Cake, a serious message is delivered, in this case concerning judgment made without due process, which is certainly a current concern in this country.
The ebullient Jen is portrayed by Lizzie Izuymin. Some of us (or, at least me) may be annoyed at how forgiving Jen is when Della refuses to make room in her schedule for Jen’s wedding cake, which seems an abomination. But having moved away from her roots makes Jen complex in a different way than Della. In keeping with the old saw “You can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy,” Jen carries some residue from her past and lapses into patterns she valued from earlier in life, some of which don’t please Macy. Separately, as if to justify her sexual orientation and love for Macy, Jen explains to Della her fear of intercourse with a man and how Macy made physical love make sense.
The other two characters are more rigid, albeit with endearing qualities. Macy (Sundiata Ayinde) possesses the antenna expected of a person from a minority. In this scenario, she observes how billboards increasingly offend her the further south she goes. She is intellectually committed to her beliefs, and as an online journalist, she seeks opportunity and values truth, which will also put her at odds with others. Della’s husband Tim (Tom Gough) is the likeable, laid-back type. But scratch the surface, and he’s the archetype of conservative intolerance, expecting his wife to follow his every command; fearing that Jen has been poisoned by northern liberals; and believing that gay love is gross.
If an optimistic conclusion can be drawn from the play it is that another overlay of conflict depicted is generational. The younger generation, or the future, is more inclusive, and to some extent, that acceptance seeps through to part of the more resistant older generation. Time is on the side of youth.
The Cake offers equal parts charm and provocation in a production with fine acting throughout as well as outstanding creative values. Ron Gasparinetti’s expansive scenery, which includes bedrooms on both flanks of the bakery, is appropriate, appealing, and detailed. George Psarras’s sound engages, particularly in the Great American Bake Off sequences when Della speaks with The Voice (Max Tachis), while Sonya Wong’s lighting highlights the action. The integration of designs and pace are exquisitely directed and coordinated by Lisa Mallette.
The Cake, written by Bekah Brunstetter, is produced by City Lights Theater Company and plays on its stage at 529 South 2nd Street, San Jose, CA through June 8, 2025.