Revu CAKE: A Crime of Love
“CAKE: A Crime of Love” Poster
Interesting concepts and some strong performances.
From the get go, it is clear CAKE: A Crime of Love is wearing its tongue–in-cheek nature on its sleeve. It is a reverse murder mystery that starts with a preshow of one of the characters, Eloise, heckling the audience as they attend a birthday party, asking them where their gifts are and getting quite impassioned about it too.
“CAKE: A Crime of Love”
What follows is the 24 hours before Alfie’s birthday and the web of lies, hysteria, comedy and crime that all took place during it. His girlfriend Lottie has made him a cake. He has slept with her best friend Dani. His friend JJ is trying to sleep with his sister, Eloise.
The structure of the piece and its willingness to play with structure, reality, dreams and fantasy is perhaps its most intriguing aspect. Throughout the piece, the stage flashes pink with a wash, sometimes with fantasies of one character of how a scene will play out depending on what they say, sometimes what they think another character is feeling, sometimes for the events that will take place. It is risky and at times it does not pay off, but when it does it can be both hilarious and illuminating, namely when Alfie is trying to break the news of his betrayal to his girlfriend Lottie.
The comedy is CAKE: A Crime of Love is strong, landing more often than not and although sexual in nature, never overly crude or lowbrow. This is also aided by strong performances from Lizzy Thistlewayte as Dani and Oisin Maguire as JJ, who both play characters that could become frustrating in the hands of less charismatic and skilled performers.
“CAKE: A Crime of Love”
There is an extended mock court case section in the middle of the production, that runs for too long and at times becomes convoluted due to the multi-rolling involved. In a production that already bounces around quite a lot, adding a story within a story, becomes a layer too much. The shorter deviations prove to be far more effective such as a dance sequence to Madonna from JJ and Eloise or a mock eulogy for a cat.The production alsohas a satisfying conclusion that mainly sticks the landing but there is a feeling that the build up towards it and its throughline as a whole could be improved.
CAKE: A Crime of Love takes a lot of swings and has more hits than misses. However, some further refinement is needed to make this something truly delicious.
The ticket link to this production can be found here: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/cake-a-crime-of-love
3/5 Stars
“CAKE: A Crime of Love”
By Ethan H.M.M
