Arthur Aulisi and Ramona Floyd
The play's title refers to a book, Let Them Eat Cake, by one Dana Dunnigan (Ramona Floyd), a right-wing, liberal-gutting radio shockmeister whose star is on the rise in the conservative firmament of 1999. Her book, and the spiteful career that underlies it, enrages an underground revolutionary cadre, The Market Complex, who kidnaps her as part of its plan to destroy the world financial system. The result is an amusing but off-kilter swipe at capitalism and its discontents.
Playwright Felipe Ossa, who in his day job has written extensively about monetary matters and so knows his marketspeak, is good at the bromides and half-baked Friedmanite crap that comes out of Dunnigan's mouth -- it does enrage because it is so pin-headed and sanctimonious.
His script is less convincing when it comes to The Market Complex and the kidnapping that sets off the play's action. Led by Patrick (Arthur Aulisi), a former soldier, the Complex has three "soldiers": William (Dan Shaked), committed to translating obscure Marxist philosophers; John (Samuel Adams), his over-sexed translation partner who trades consummation for his conjugations; and Emily (Erin Leigh Schmoyer), whose goal in life is to become a one-breasted Amazon warrior.
Mr. Ossa wants them to come off as young people committed to revolutionary change through actual class warfare, but he presents them as bumptious and unweathered, and he doesn't give Patrick the persuasive arguments that would convince three untethered 20-somethings to commit themselves to such an unrewarding life. (Mr. Aulisi struggled throughout to give his character the charisma that the script did not offer.)
Nor does Dunnigan's transmutation from free-market fundamentalism to a fierce supporter of the Zapatistas come off as anything but unconvincing because it happens as the result of a vaudevillian kidnap (a shoulder pad in a woman's jacket is doused with chloroform), interrogations that consist mostly of torture by boring rhetoric, and a scheme to skim money from the market that can only be called hare-brained at best. Mr. Ossa may want to present these transformative ideas as legitimate, but because he doesn't give his hapless heralds the tools to do the job, everything comes off as a lame joke, amusing but inert.
Mr. Ossa also throws a complication into the script that further defangs the intellectual arguments he presents. Patrick and Dana are actually brother and sister, and Patrick's whole effort at kidnapping Dana and converting her is done to convince their father, an aging unreconstructed Marxist, that Patrick still has his revolutionary chops and thus deserves praise from his hard-bitten father. This domestication of the revolutionary impulse, while perhaps emotionally interesting, drags the play's energy down without adding any dramatic texture.
Despite the script's limitations, the cast gives an energizing performance. Both Ms. Schmoyer and Ms. Floyd find their feminine warriors in distinct ways. Mr. Adam's louche pretty boy exudes a kind of cute sexual energy, balanced nicely by Mr. Shaked's noodgy desire to write a world-shaking polemic before the age of 25. Mr. Aulisi makes a credible ex-soldier who, if required, would do whatever job needs to be done. Dan Soule's set design, a half-circle of translucent screens in a grey-wood frame, works well to frame the action, complemented by Jesse Vacchiano's simple lighting design. Director Leah Bonvissuto keeps the action moving smartly and has chosen a great suite of songs to cover the scene changes.
I do laud Mr. Ossa for bringing the name of Marx and the principles of revolution against the capitalist regime to the stage in a way that doesn't mock them. Given the recent screwing-over we've all received from the free market, it's nice to hear another voice say, "No," even if that voice is a bit over-psychologized and doesn't quite trust the ideas to carry the day. For that "No" alone, Cake is worth a bite.
(June 2010)