Porn and cake together at last in hilarious new show

June 28th, 2012

Appliance Talk Ovens & Cooking

Members of the Appliances Online marketing team discovered the link between cake and porn last night.

When at last we stumbled out into the cold night air, we were satiated and energised… with a distinctly sweet taste in our mouths.

Let me explain.

“Porn.Cake” is a new production running at the Stables Theatre, Sydney, until July 14.

We went to see it, and duly enjoyed a creamy slice of contemporary Australian comedy. Smartly written by playwright Vanessa Bates, it’s sufficiently witty and light enough to be easy on the palette and, at 80 minutes long, not too hard to swallow.

And lo, we even got two or three slices of free cake!

Built as a comedy about aging, and yet more obviously about cake, the production focusses on two hapless couples, all parties nearing or having passed the dreaded 40-year-old threshold.

Facing middle-age with a due sense of confusion and inadequacy, they struggle to communicate with each other in a sequence of repetitive, if increasingly frenzied, exchanges. Meanwhile, their own attempts to reconcile themselves to the aging process emerge in poignant and hilarious monologues.

Cake becomes an unlikely saviour: a bridge in a relationship divide, a catharsis for rage, a means to express honour and love for an old friend and, in one memorable scene, a messy, spongy centrepiece to a sexual encounter.

Apparently these dudes really, really like cake.

We’ll stretch the analogy (don’t worry, we’ll shortly get tired of this), and say the production was by no means undercooked and the cast duly rose to the challenge (that’s the last one). Amongst a dynamic cast, our stand-out was Georgina Symes as Annie, a naturopath with anger-management issues – she was funny and, well, hot.

Cooking enthusiasts, meanwhile, will enjoy (recorded) interludes by Jamie Oliver and stimulating references to Nigella Lawson.

More specifically, cake fans will love this show. About a dozen (real cakes) were incorporated into the show: thrown, eaten, stabbed, smooshed and gorged.

Of the (untouched) remnants of these, we were invited to sample at the end of the show – an opportunity we availed ourselves of with gusto. We left the theatre feeling a few kilograms heavier.

Shouldn’t every theatrical experience be like that?

For more information and tickets, visit the Griffin Theatre website!