By Monique Danziger

Bekah Brunsetter’s The Cake, which opened the 28th season at the Oregon Contemporary Theatre on Sept. 27, is a timely piece with a healthy dash of social commentary. The story of Della, a deeply religious southern woman with a moral objection to baking a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, will jog most people’s memory of similar real-life events in the last few years. Born and raised in a conservative Baptist community in North Carolina, Ms. Brunsetter was thinking of her parents when she wrote The Cake, and it is this empathy and connection that allows her to go beyond the headlines to tell a story about the complexities of human nature.

It’s a hard sell on paper, this idea that Della the intolerant baker (played by Tinamarie Ivey) could be a sympathetic character. Yet within minutes of meeting her, it’s clear there is no choice but to like her. The lights come up and there she is, standing amidst her colorful cakes singing about God while happily applying a layer of fondant.

In her opening monologue, Della explains herself. Her worldview is clear: I know where I’m from, why I’m here, and where I’m going. She loves full-fat dairy and doesn’t care if her “eggs were ever caged.” She believes that butter and sugar were created by God as a “reward for our good choices.” And her joy is infectious, thanks to Ivey’s superb comedic timing and fierce earnestness.

It turns out that this monologue is for the benefit of Della’s lone bakery patron, a woke young urbanite named Macy. Della is happily espousing the very obedience to recipes and rules that won her a spot as a contestant on the Great American Baking Show. But Macy is not impressed with sugary cakes or Della’s folksy ideas on diffusing tension in the Mideast with personalized cakes for every member of Isis. Macy, played with the right amounts of vulnerability and sharpness by Anya Pearson, is here to plan a wedding with her fiancée, Jen.

This wedding is mostly for Jen (Tara Wibrew), whose conservative southern roots run deeper than Macy initially realized. This wedding is also to honor the memory of Jen’s late mother and so everything has to be perfect, including a cake from her dear, almost-godmother Della’s bakery. In playing Jen, Wibrew balances the exuberance of a Type-A, joyous bride-to-be with someone still haunted by a shame for who she is. Della, a stand-in maternal figure, simply cannot give Jen the acceptance she so desperately desires. It breaks Della’s heart, but she cannot find a way to reconcile her love for Jen with the moral covenants of her faith.

What follows is an exploration of how someone like Della experiences this challenge to her world and belief system. Some of the best and most powerful scenes are Della’s admissions of her own deep shame, confusion and yearnings to feel loved.

Della’s partner in this journey is her husband, Tim, a lovable lunkhead who proves that he too can whip up a surprise or two, the part played with heart and charm by Patrick Dizney.

There are so many great moments in The Cake. It is a tremendously funny show and one that asks its characters to be vulnerable and, at times, a little naked. Director Willow Jade Norton guides the cast through emotional dialogue, fast-paced jokes and sometimes tricky visual set-ups to create something cohesive and impactful.

Ms. Brunstetter is also a fiction writer, and her plays contain a lot of specific and almost narrative stage direction. One element of The Cake where she made detailed and intentional direction was around the very cakes themselves. It is thanks to the fabulous work by properties designer Rebecca Blanchard that such descriptions as a royal blue christening cake and the fabled Noah’s Ark cake, come to life.

It is also worth noting the great voice work of George Spelvin, who plays George, Della’s imagined baking show host and sometimes conscience. Creating these imagined inner scenes is a tricky bit of stagecraft and Mr. Spelvin, along with excellent lighting design by Michael A Peterson and sound design by Bradley Branam, pull it off nicely.

The rules of baking are immutable. Every ingredient must be combined in just the right quantities and in the correct order and fashion. Rush the process or diverge from the recipe, and you’re liable to be disappointed with what comes out of the oven. Thankfully, ideas are a little more changeable. The Cake does not put forward quick and easy answers. What is does show is how there are no villains or heroes here — only people made up of their own unique combinations of experiences, ideas and emotions.

Can people change? Sure. But as any baker will tell you, good things take time.

The Cake

When: Evenings at  7:30 p.m. on Sept. 25-26, 27-28, Oct. 3-5 and 10-12 , with 2 p.m. matinees on Oct. 6 and 13

Where: Oregon Contemporary Theatre, 194 W. Broadway, Eugene

Tickets: $20 to $42 regular, $15 for students with valid ID (except opening night on Sept. 27); available online at octheatre.org or at the ticket office, 541-465-1506