Theatre
By sandpaperplane
Cheeky Sparrow Bar
10th February

If I wasn’t such a huge fan of dessert and food in general, the many laboured references to pastry and cake that pervaded Wake and Bake might have begun to irritate me. As it was, they just made me a bit hungry. This short and undeniably sweet-toothed play from local university students Jackson Used and Ben Thomas was charming and funny. I hold the actors responsible for a few belly laughs, as well as for the kebab I purchased hurriedly afterwards to satisfy my stomach pangs.

In one fast-paced act laced with swift, well-delivered dialogue, Wake and Bake depicts the aftermath of a family wake. Three siblings sit down together and seek to confront the loss of their father over dinner and, you guessed it, home-baked dessert. Through a haze of grief and resentment, much awkwardness ensues.

For a play about death, Wake and Bake doesn’t spend much time grieving. This isn’t dark comedy – lose the first word. While it might pay for the cast to linger a little more on emotional details, in refusing to dip below the surface they perhaps portray the relationship between mourning and denial rather accurately. Funeral humour is well-trod ground, but this production mixes the ingredients up just the right amount – and whisks in a few eggs.

Wake and Bake runs until Thursday February 19. You can find tickets via the Fringe World guide here.