←Recommendations of Shit Cake (one-hour play)

This play doesn't hold back in expressing its humanity. The story of two middle-aged couples learning how to re-discover themselves has been played out before. But Marcia Eppich-Harris has been able to write it out in a brutally honest fashion that serves as a wake-up call to those who feel like they've one too many a sacrifice. There are tons of great opportunities for actors who get to play these characters, each with their own point-of-view, which makes them empathetic to the audience.

By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, this play looks at marriage and the dissatisfactions of middle age, when choices have narrowed and the stakes for changing course have become so high. Each character feels a void in their life and seeks to fill it with an affair. Could they be happier with that other person? If so, at what cost? Is the emptiness they feel real, or just the drudgery of every day life? These characters felt like friends who both infuriated me and broke my heart. However you feel about them you 'll be compelled by their joureny.

I had the privilege of listening to a reading of this work and look forward to a full production. This play isn’t afraid to look at marriage and how couples can play games against one another and justify it in their own minds. The twists of the two couples and the connection in their relationship was unexpected. Some great roles for actors to dig into.

When you're alienated by life, capitalism, the socially-constructed boxes of identity, how do you move forward? When you find a shit cake, do you eat it? It looks horrible, but oh, it tastes so sweet, and how long your tongue has longed for sweetness. Close your eyes, it's wonderful. Open them, it's shit. Idealism is murdered by the drudgery of life, and yet the drudgery gives us such strong longing. Marcia Eppich-Harris takes a taboo and paints it in an oddly beautiful, sad way. It's funny and awful. There's something almost ugly and yet delicious here. A true Shit Cake.