"The Cake" by UNC alumna and "This is Us" writer Bekah Brunstetter has been captivating PlayMakers Repertory Company audiences since opening night and will continue to until its final show.
This play takes a very heated political issue and makes it just a little more human.
It tells the story of one woman's moral dilemma as she tries to figure out what she truly believes is fair and just. Rooted in her religion, cake baker Della (Julia Gibson) must decide if she will bake a cake for a young lesbian couple's wedding.
The couple, Jen (Jenny Latimer) and Macy (Christine Mirzayan), also have their own problems coming to terms with their own belief systems.
Brunstetter said she wanted to write a play that extended empathy to those with conservative views.
“To me, playwriting is an opportunity for me to figure out how I feel about things and for me to put myself into a place where I’m forced to have conversations I find difficult in my actual life,” she said.
"The Cake" does force audiences to have conversations about things that may be difficult or uncomfortable for them. Centered around sex, sexuality and religion, it definitely fits in with PlayMakers' theme this year, “A Season on the Edge.”
Longtime actress and current student in UNC’s Professional Actor Training Program Jenny Latimer plays the character of Jen. Latimer describes the show as “a love story, but not just of romantic love.”
This show tells the stories of not only romantic love, but also a family love that gets tested when moral beliefs don’t quite match up.
