Marie Antoinette is famous for the saying, “Let them eat cake!”

Whether she actually said it or not doesn’t really matter in the face of history or the minds of the people whose rumor-mill worked overtime and managed to get her head in the guillotine anyway.

Cake (written by Felipe Ossa and directed by Leah Bonvissuto) helps us to imagine what would happen approximately 200 years later if  - instead of a monarch – we get someone like Dana Dunnigan (Ramona Floyd) who lives on the conservative right and has a radio talk show where her celebrity and the power of her notoriety among her detractors very well might lead to her beheading too.  It’s the glorification by an adoring fan-base, determined to save her,  that helps keep her around.

We enter the story as Dana replies to people calling into her radio show. Dana seems to have a barb for all – friend and foe alike. We get the impression that, to her, it’s more important to be notorious than well-liked.  Not to mention the fact that she always knows how right she is about everything. Regardless of whether people love her or hate her, she seems in her element and in control.

Dana believes all the wrong things for all the right reasons and aggressively grates against all of our revolutionaries-in-training: Emily Richardson (played by Erin Leigh Schmoyer), William Devita (Dan Shaked) and John Mulcahey (Samuel Adams) among others.

Cake is about a similar transformation as that of Alice In Wonderland who ate cake and was able to then leave the purgatory of the bottom of the rabbit hole – finally able to enter Wonderland itself.   Throughout Cake Dana’s path follows a similar coarse as she finds herself wanting to actually do something in the world rather than just continuing to be the pundit she has always been, at the end after she falls through her own rabbit hole of being abducted.

Ramona Floyd, Samuel Adams, Dan Shaked, & Erin Leigh Schmoyer

On the opposite side of the fence, but with a similar journey,  Emily and her cohorts also change from being caricatures of the standard “socialist proletariat revolutionary” wannabe that can be found on any college campus into true adventurers ready to take their special talents and make a difference.

First we meet Emily, who tells us she goes into Corporate America with her camouflage of a smart pant suit and blouse, and that her training as an actress has always stopped anyone from believing she was anything else than what she appeared.  “It’s what I do.”she says.  She has a strong dislike for Dana which makes her personally invested to lead the kidnapping of Dana for the plans of her group.  Schmoyer as Emily artfully acts a character within a character able to convince Dana as well as the audience that she really is “one of them”.

Then we meet John Mulcahey (Samuel Adams) who is trying to compile all the philosophies of all the great (but terribly obscure) revolutionary writers of the 20th century into his “late, great” polemic. Late because “All the great {socialist} writers wrote their first polemics by the time they were 22…and I’m 24″. Great because he believes by doing such large amounts of time researching the obscure foreign books of as many of the brightest social theorists as possible, he could produce such a compelling argument against the old system that no one of any sense would be able to resist it and…as Marx would say the “State will fall away” at last.

And William Devita (Dan Shaked) seems at first simple: he wants John, and more importantly he wants John to want him in return.“I just want to jump your bones…Texts for sex has always been our contract”. He reads and translates aloud (“Always first in the mother tongue,” John insists) page after page and book after book of those obscure texts in Spanish, in French, in Italian, in Portuguese. William is definitely a polyglot among other things, but doesn’t seem to have the marketable skills as John and Emily have. Clearly William is the symbol of the noble proletariat, the everyman that everyone can aspire to be. He always smooths things over by being the least extreme but most capable of the bunch.

Leading this band of activists is a man referred to as “Che”(real name: Patrick Strife played by Arthur Aulisi) who is not as together as he seems.  His style of leadership is actually quite subtle, and he skillfully gets what he wants by making people think that what he is getting them to do was their idea all along.  It is he who comes up with the plan to abduct Dana Dunnigan . . . we find out the “why” later on in the play and it doesn’t quite match up with what we’ve been lead to believe.

In the end everything turns out for the “better” for everyone, just not what any of the characters would have expected at the beginning.

The twists and turns of this play will keep you riveted not just to find out what is coming next, but how it will happen.  Set in the 1990s, scene changes and climactic scenes are often accompanied by driving house music.  That and the unique flavor of those times at the end of the millennium are artfully captured by both the writer Felipe Ossa as well as the set designer (Dan Soule), stage manager (Megan Jupin) and fight choreographer (Ian Roettger) and others work together to make a really exciting play that will make you want to talk about the good old days “before the bubble burst” if that’s your cup of tea — or your piece of cake.

~~~

Related Posts:

• Ye Elizabeths: Living Vicariously Because … (2012 Planet Connections Festivity)
• Ye Elizabeths – 5 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2012 Planet Connections Festivity)
• Planet Connections Q&A: Cake / Revolution!
• The 2012 National Newborn Festival Is Almost Here!
• That’s Quite A Story – The Tragic Story Of Doctor Frankenstein

Planet Connections Theatre Festivity is New York City’s premiere eco-friendly theatre festival, connecting artists and audiences with diverse dynamic charitable organizations. The Planet Connections experience entertains, enlightens and informs.

The Happiest Medium (proud sponsors of The Planet Connections Festival), will be running Q&A throughout the festival.

Today we ask one question each of Leah Bonvissuto, director of Cake (written by Felipe Ossa) and Anne Berlin writer of the book and lyrics of Revolution! These two  plays both deal with politics but take on the topic in very different ways.  Let’s take a look . . .

Cake

answers by Leah Bonvissuto

Here’s Antonio’s question -

If you would have to single out a quality between dialogue, plot or character, which one is the strongest in your play/piece, and why?

In Cake, each character is rooted in intense ideology or passion and they express this through frighteningly funny and quick dialogue, which elevates the plot well beyond a conventional political play. All three elements, in turn, support and destabilize each other in a way that’s impossible to separate them out.

Here’s Karen’s question -

What has been the most surprising or unexpected thing that’s happened during this play? Did that wind up taking the play in a new direction?

Having such amazingly smart and talented actors who’ve pushed the darker parts of the play deeper than Felipe (the playwright) and I expected, while also taking the comedy to the sort of hilarious heights that are rare for a play this thoughtful.

Here’s Anne’s question -

What do you think is the central theme and reason this play was conceived?

We’re really interested in the changeability of ideology and how politics are all too often determined by the personal.

Here’s Stephen’s Question -

Why should the audience (we) go to your play? What will the audience learn about the “human condition” by going to your play?

I suspect a lot of our audience will be walking in expecting to have their beliefs validated. We hope they are surprised, delighted and taken to unexpected places during the piece and come out the other end with questions as well as a nice little aftertaste.

Here’s Sarah’s Question -

What is your favorite line from the play?

(Adorable assailant with crossbow in hand): “Fear. My favorite fragrance.”

Here’s Diánna’s Question -

What about this play do you feel most drawn to personally, and because of that, what message do you hope the audience walks away with?

I’m quick to make judgments depending on what side of the fence another person’s politics fall on. This play makes you question that.

* * *

Revolution!

answers by Anne Berlin

Here’s Antonio’s question -

If you would have to single out a quality between dialogue, plot or character, which one is the strongest in your play/piece, and why?

REVOLUTION! is a unique, new musical whose premise is revolution. In every revolution there is a beginning, middle and end. My musical is comprised of a trio of interconnected musicals that focus on the Russian, French and American revolutions. They playfully seek to deconstruct these revolutions but with whimsy and charm. The stories are told in three parts: “Liberty”, “Equality” and “Fraternity.” The characters are matryoshka dolls, chess pieces and toy soldiers.

I feel how I’ve conceptualized my musical, my way of story telling and the plots themselves are the strongest element to my show.

Here’s Karen’s question -

What has been the most surprising or unexpected thing that’s happened during this play? Did that wind up taking the play in a new direction?

The most surprising thing that happened was that when I was writing this musical, the French revolution musical changed. I felt it needed much less music than the American and Russian revolutions and cut the score in half.

Here’s Anne’s question -

What do you think is the central theme and reason this play was conceived?

The central theme to my musical is revolution. It was conceived because of the radical changes we have seen since this new century was born.

Here’s Stephen’s Question -

Why should the audience (we) go to your play? What will the audience learn about the “human condition” by going to your play?

More than anything REVOLUTION! is in simpatico with the “human condition.” We deal with liberty, equality and fraternity. In one revolution the musical deals with a family coming apart by the social changes happening around them, in another revolution the “human condition” and the rights of man are dealt with and the last revolution the fraternity of friendship and the “human condition” which suffers, but is strengthened.

Here’s Sarah’s Question -

What is your favorite line from the play?

Favorite line: “By George you did it!” Colonel Baylor to General George Washington.

Here’s Diánna’s Question -

What about this play do you feel most drawn to personally, and because of that, what message do you hope the audience walks away with?

The playful way I have told my stories which I hope sheds light on the ‘human condition’ in an interesting and original way. I wanted to be bold, and experimental.

Related Posts:

• Cake: When All Else Fails, Eat It (Planet Connections 2010)
• It’s A Triple Play For Natalie Menna!
• Ye Elizabeths: Living Vicariously Because … (2012 Planet Connections Festivity)
• A Brief History Of Thyme (2012 Planet Connections Festivity)
• Ye Elizabeths – 5 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2012 Planet Connections Festivity)

If you’re like me, you love cake.   And the internet.  And laughing at other people’s mistakes. So chances are you’ve come across Cake Wrecks already and I’m not about to tell you anything new.  This tip is not for you.

This tip is for those among us who have technology-averse loved ones who say things like “I saw that secret code you sent me in your email, but it didn’t make any sense” … and you reply “That was just a link, dad.  All you have to do is click on it.”  And anonymous loved one says “Oh, I didn’t want to break the internet.  Can you just print it out and send it to me in the mail? ”  But how do you mail an ENTIRE WEB SITE of funny images?  Well … now you can …

Cake Wrecks has not only gone from a very funny (some times very very very VERY funny) blog to a book, but the author of said book is galavanting around the states on a book tour and if you want to not only buy a copy, but have it autographed (hopefully with some sort of misspelled, too-literal inscription, or else where’s the fun?) and you live in NYC then you’re in luck!  Catch Cake Wrecks author here:

New York
(Greenwich Village)
Barnes & Noble Tuesday, Nov 3rd, 7:30PM

Yeeee…. Ha Ha Ha!

Related Posts:

• Cake: When All Else Fails, Eat It (Planet Connections 2010)
• Planet Connections Q&A: Cake / Revolution!
• Book/Movie Tie-Ins: Alice In Wonderland