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Cake

Reviewed by Vanessa Cate

Theatre Unleashed

Through Nov. 21

Wendy Gough Soroka’s new play Cake visits the semi-intertwined lives of a group of people in and around a university, and does so in 21 skits dealing with a very wide variety of topics.

We meet Cynthia Newton (Kirè Horton), a playwright struggling against feminist clichés as her new play opens to criticism that it is too esoteric, too trite, and does not focus enough on women (despite taking place in a monastery in the 1500s). While her supportive albeit indecisive husband Tom (Jacob Smith) tries to help her through, we see glimpses into her play itself. Here Brother Timothy (Brad Griffith) and Brother Phillip (Lee Pollero) bicker about everything from radishes to chess. Meanwhile, a grossly incompetent English Professor (Tracey Collins) advises top students Izzy (Theresa Stroll) and Jake (Bobby McGlynn) to do worse in class, and new mother Julie (Liz Fenning) laments her life to her painfully single friend Jennie (Courtney Sara Bell).

The play is a bit broad, never fully focusing on one idea for too long, and insomuch as the characters are all connected, they still largely exist independently of each other. The extended metaphor of “cake” itself is diluted to mean any number of things –- from personality, lack of communication, independence vs. tradition, and — most heavily — as heterosexuality. And while there may not be as much substance here as in, say, a piece of cherry pie, the production does exhibit a youthful optimism as it lightly serves up a slice of life. Lisa K. Wyatt directs.

Theatre Unleashed at The Belfry Stage, Upstairs @ The Crown; 11031 Camarillo St., North Hollywood; Thurs-Sat. 8 p.m.; through Nov. 21. (818) 849-4039; www.theatreunleashed.org; Running time approximately 95 minutes with no intermission.