Professional baker Della, a southern evangelical trapped in a sterile,
repressive marriage, puts all her passion into making cakes according to
traditional, gospellike recipes. When long-absent Jen, the grown daughter
of her deceased best friend, shows up unannounced in her North Carolina
bakery, Della gushes with affection—until Jen asks if she’ll provide the
cake for her upcoming marriage to a woman.
Despite the predictable ripped-from-the-headlines setup, playwright Bekah
Brunstetter gets the two lead characters in this 2017 drama to exquisitely
complicated places. Della sees the deep love between Jen and her fiancee,
Macy, and tears herself to shreds trying to believe their relationship
isn’t an abomination, especially when her own “proper” marriage is so
injurious. Jen works overtime to convince righteously liberal Macy that
good people can hold intolerant views, but it’s ultimately Jen’s own
internalized homophobia, ingrained from her hyperconservative upbringing,
that pushes her away from Della, the woman whose love makes her feel her
own shame all the more acutely.
The route to the play’s engrossing emotional climax is as engaging as it is
schematic. Often Brunstetter reduces her characters to singular points of
view (Della follows instructions, Macy expects everyone to think like her),
depicting certain cultural divides with excessive tidiness. But just as
often she lets ambiguity reign, leaving director Lauren Shouse’s sensitive
cast ample room to breathe full dimension into their characters. As Della,
a woman whose faith corrodes the only nurturing relationship in her life,
Rivendell founder Tara Mallen is heartbreaking. v
Through 5/20: Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 4 and 8 PM, Sun 3 PM; also Wed 5/9, 8 PM, 5779 N. Ridge, 773-334-7728, rivendelltheatre.org, $38, $28 students, seniors, military.
