Today and tonight signify Friday, March 27.
PORT ANGELES — Both Max and Suzie sense something highly weird about their dates. But as many hopeful romantics do, they choose to ignore the nagging feeling.
Away they go, into the middle of “The Cupcake Conspiracy,” the comedy on stage through this weekend only at the Mount Pleasant Grange Hall, Readers Theatre Plus’ new venue.
In this play by C.J. Ehrlich and Philip Kaplan, we meet Max (Merv Wingard), a timid guy who is separated from his wife, Suzie (Pam Fries). Both are looking for love at the top of the Empire State Building, where they have, separately, arranged to meet blind dates.
Their dates turn out to be Natasha (Brenda DeChant), a sexy terrorist, and Alvin (Jeff Clinton), who identifies himself first as Mondo, a movie producer.
Soon, they’re enmeshed in Natasha’s plot involving evil cupcakes as weapons of mass destruction. As the story spins out, various henchmen, an organic-tofu hot dog vendor and a pair of little old ladies appear — all portrayed by Damon Little and Ric Munhall.
“Cupcake” is a farce, yes, about dangerous desserts made at the Unabaker factory. But it’s also about how men and women, whether they’re on a first date or married to each other, have trouble truly seeing the people they’re with.
Projections get in the way. We see what we want to see, and we get caught in our own web of delusion and negativity.
But wait. This article is getting too serious.
“The Cupcake Conspiracy” is just good fun, said director Janice Parks. It’s a bit like the old Bob Hope movies of the 1940s, added Wingard. And since this isn’t a high-budget production, there’s no Empire State Building set. Wingard’s wife in real life, Judi, serves as the narrator, letting us know where each scene is taking place.
We travel from the skyscraper to Max and Suzie’s apartment, to a storeroom where she and Alvin are held hostage, to the Unabakery and then back up to the Empire State summit.
The plot takes a twist or two, and then delivers us to a romantic ending.
This is Readers Theatre Plus’ first production of 2015, following the nonprofit troupe’s five-month hiatus. Its former home was the Dungeness Schoolhouse, but the building’s lack of a reliable, handicapped-accessible lift made it unsuitable.
Readers Theatre Plus will direct proceeds from this show into its scholarship fund for local high school students. After awarding $4,800 in grants to seniors in Port Angeles and Sequim in 2014, the organization hopes to do the same or more this year.
“We look at financial need, grades and their future plans,” said Parks, also a Readers Theatre Plus board member. Students pursuing study of the arts receive the awards as they graduate from high school.
This fundraising won’t be easy. Some think of the Mount Pleasant Grange Hall as too far out of town, production manager Sue Valnes said on opening night last Friday.
The hall is 2½ miles south of U.S. Highway 101 and about 25 minutes from Sequim or 15 minutes from downtown Port Angeles.
Like the rest of the cast and crew, Valnes hopes patrons will make the trip for the play, and for the cupcakes laid out at intermission.
“Tell your friends we’re way up here,” she said.
