Bergen County Players present ‘The Cake,’ a current events-inspired work of many layers and flavors

From left, Angelina Aragona, Holly Cerelli and Kylah Wilson co-star in Bergen County Players’ production of “The Cake.”

Della, the main character of Bekah Brunstetter’s “The Cake” — now being presented by Bergen County Players at The Little Firehouse Theatre in Oradell — is a baker. She is a great believer in following recipes: not skipping any of the instructions, no matter how seemingly insignificant, and using the right ingredients. And she has no use for bakers who don’t want to do it the old-fashioned way.

“First mistake they make? Skimping on milk, skimping on butter,” she says in the monologue that opens the play. “They try and use tofu butter … milk made out of nuts. … You’ve got to get the real stuff. And I’m not talking about that organic this-or-that stuff. I don’t care if your eggs were ever caged!”

“The Cake” — directed, here, by Carol Fisher — was inspired by a real-life controversy you may remember. In 2017, a Lakewood, Colorado, bakery owner refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple, on religious grounds. The couple sued, and the case made it all the way to The Supreme Court.

Brunstetter sets her play in North Carolina rather than Colorado and — upping the dramatic ante significantly — makes one of the brides-to-be, professional event planner Jen (played by Angelina Aragona), a close family friend of Della (Holly Cerelli). Della was, in fact, the best friend of Jen’s mother, who recently died, and is a kind of mother figure to Jen.

John Klemek and Holly Cerelli in “The Cake.”

So “The Cake” is, to some extent, a topical play. It is also something of a family drama, since the cake issue strains the familial bond between Jen and Della. And it offers a pair of troubled relationships that need to be healed — Jen’s with her fiancée, journalist Macy (Kylah Wilson), and Holly’s with her cloddish but well-meaning husband Tim (John Klemek), a plumber. (When Della tells Tim that Jen wants to be known as that and not “Jenny,” which she went by when she was younger, he responds, “What is that, a lesbian thing?”).

There are also fantasy segments in which Della, who recently has been chosen to participate in a TV baking competition, imagines what will happen; she has a crush on the show’s host, George (never seen, but voiced by Larry Brustofski). She also mentions that business is so slow that she is thinking about closing down the shop — which is kind of strange, if she is so exceptional at her craft that the TV competition selected her.

Parts of the play are quite serious, and loaded with emotional resonance. Others, though, offer comedy ranging from wry social commentary to broad humor — including the silliest sight gag I have seen in a play in a long time.

Brunstetter’s recipe for this play seems to call for … a little bit of everything. But the combination seemed a little off, to me: Ingredients that are delicious on their own don’t necessarily complement each other effectively.

The play opens in Della’s store, the cheerfully decorated Della’s Sweet Shoppe. She is chatting, awkwardly, with Macy, who doesn’t have much interest in cake, but lectures Della on the addictive qualities of sugar, and asks for coffee with soy milk. We soon learn, though, that Macy is only there to wait for Jen; they live together in Brooklyn but are in North Carolina to plan the wedding, which will be in Jen’s original hometown.

Angelina Aragona and Kylah Wilson in “The Cake.”

Jen shows up at the Shoppe. She and Della haven’t seen each other for a while and are thrilled to reconnect. But Jen is reluctant to tell Della that she and Macy are more than friends. She does say, though, that she needs a wedding cake, and Della is excited to make it … until she finds out that Macy will be the spouse, and she suddenly realizes that she will be too busy to do the baking. Six months from now.

Back in North Carolina instead of Brooklyn, Jen reverts to the more conventional, less true-to-herself person she used to be; her inclination is to let Della be Della, and not fight her on this issue. Macy is more scornful, and wants to be more confrontational. (She is also not as eager for the big, expensive wedding that Jen is planning, and not as wrapped up in the idea that it should fulfill some storybook fantasy.) Meanwhile, Della is heartbroken about the whole cake thing, and not sure she is doing the right thing.

And for everyone, the issue triggers memories from their respective pasts that help explain why they are acting the way they are.

The clash never makes it to a courtroom, as it did in Colorado. But it does give Brunstetter a good launching pad for a play that feels very much of the moment — and that comes to a hopeful but not sugar-coated (or, as Della might imagine it, buttercream-covered) conclusion.

Bergen County Players will present “The Cake” at The Little Firehouse Theatre in Oradell through April 11. Visit bcplayers.org.
_________________________________________