When it comes to the liberal vs. conservative divide on same-sex marriage, logic – or even love – doesn’t seem to bridge the gap.

Still, Bekah Brunstetter’s play The Cake, onstage at Triangle Productions, gives it a shot, with some humor thrown in for good measure.

Directed by Donald Horn, the show begins in Della’s North Carolina bakery, a fluffy place with pink and white décor and lots of flowers and frosted cakes on display. Here, Della (Danielle Valentine) happily chats away with a stranger from New York. Macy (Lydia Fleming), though, is a writer who seems to have come to the shop for the sole purpose of challenging its owner about her beliefs on everything from the average American diet to Jesus’ ability to perform miracles.

Sartorially speaking, the two women have little in common. Della, looking like a fancy cake herself, is dressed in a puffy-sleeved pink top, a flouncy floral apron, and white pedal pushers with a scalloped hem. Macy, on the other hand, wears a camp shirt and no-nonsense army-green utility pants, a contrasting clothing style that mirrors deeper differences. While Della is a conservative Christian who doesn’t believe in gay marriage, Macy, it turns out, is engaged to marry Jen (Setaria DePue), who is like a daughter to Della and wants her to bake their wedding cake.

Both Valentine and Fleming, who’ve frequently appeared in musicals around town, are thoroughly engaging in this play that begins with a smile and steadily builds toward a series of tense discussions between the characters.

Brunstetter grew up in the South and told Concord Theatricals’ Breaking Character that she’s known and loved a lot of people like Della and thinks they’re often misrepresented in the media. She would have no problem, then, with Valentine’s impressive performance, which she serves with generous dollops of wit and charm along with several dashes of self-doubt.  

Della’s default setting is cheery mode, even when being persistently provoked by Macy. Brushing off the younger woman’s criticism of the food industry and how it has us all hooked on sugar, Della says if everyone could have free cake, even members of ISIS would be happier. Later, when the conversation veers too close to confrontation, she scurries back to her kitchen to check on her pineapple upside-down cake.

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Her determination to remain polite may be admirable, but good manners only go so far when she has to decide whether she’s going to let her Bible-fed beliefs break Jen’s heart.

From this point on, the debate heats up as the characters – including Della’s dictatorial husband, Tim (Dave Cole) – argue about who’s right and wrong. While Della isn’t as stubborn as Tim, who says lesbian sex is “gross” and scoffs at liberals, with their sushi and “sweat yoga,” she also believes in following the directions to the letter both in life and in baking.

The pain of watching Della and Jen clash might be hard to handle if it weren’t softened by some comic bits where Della imagines she’s on the Great American Bake-Off Show and is being addressed by the voice of its male host. Serving as a glimpse into Della’s psyche, the voice taunts her, asking her if she’s a bigot.

“Are you suuuuure?” he playfully presses when she denies it. In truth, Della struggles to accept that Jen is a lesbian. At the same time, she also can’t stand to think of herself as a homophobic bigot, revealing her human desire to have her cake and eat it, too.

Brunstetter’s script gives all its characters such depth. Even Tim is more flexible than he first appears, although I kept thinking that he and Della, who haven’t had sex in 10 years, might have more fun in bed if he showed up in the bedazzling drag/serpent get-up Cole wore for Triangle’s JC: Gospel According to an Angel earlier this year.

One of the highlights at any Triangle show is Horn’s infectious enthusiasm for his craft. For The Cake, he once again serves as the set, costume and prop designer, and his eye for detail is, as ever, spot-on. Next to Della’s pink bakery, for example, is her vibrant green living room, which is punctuated with touches of red, two opposites on the color wheel.

Considering all points of view, as the play colorfully nudges us to do, could lead to a more nuanced outlook. But what happens when agreeing to disagree isn’t good enough? When Della says she needs more time to contemplate Jen’s marriage, it’s hard not to wonder how much time she thinks she has … and whether time is truly our only hope when all else fails to heal a rift that causes pain for conservatives and liberals alike.

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The Cake continues through Sept. 20 at Triangle Productions, 1785 N.E. Sandy Blvd., Portland. Find ticket and schedule information here.