Edinburgh Fringe 2026
CAKE : A Crime of Love
On The Brink
Genre: Dark Comedy, New Writing, Theatre
Venue: theSpace@Surgeons Hall
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
CAKE : A Crime of Love is a play about the complex tangle of truth, dubiety and downright lies that most long-term relationships have to deal with. It shows, with some skill, the way that individuals see and recall things differently, and how that is often determined by a confirmation bias of which it’s all to easy to be unaware.
Review
It’s the young crowd that’s filling theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall’s Stephenson Theatre for the final performance of fledgling theatre company On The Brink’s CAKE: A Crime of Love whose PR blurb poses an intriguing question “who gets to have their cake and eat it too?” I suppose the trite answer to that would be Boris Johnson and, whilst that might be a left field interjection in a review ostensibly about a dark comedy, it’s a line that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a plot that’s full of unpredictability pretty much from start to finish.
And interestingly that’s where we start, at the finish, with a voice over from a police investigation room where Charlotte is being interviewed under caution, exercising the same right as Nicola Sturgeon in similar circumstances. But how did we get here?
Commercial pilot Alfie’s 24th birthday is upon us and his devoted girlfriend Lotti has been slaving away in the kitchen of her flat to produce a cake worthy of the occasion, prior to tomorrow’s big party. But best friend and flatmate Dani, lubricated by too many shots, commits the ultimate faux pas, getting way too intimate with her best mate’s boyfriend. In Lotti’s flat. Who is somewhat surprised to find her boyfriend in the spare bedroom the next morning. Oops – explain your way out of that one without wrecking relationships and lives.
This trio are central to a plot that’s almost a reverse “whodunnit” as events are recalled from the standpoint of those involved, the consequences of which slowly emerge through a series of tension fuelled exchanges featuring Dani and Lotti, Lotti and Alfie and Dani and Alfie, the fun really starting when all three of them are in the same room together. And, as the party guests start arriving, so the eccentricity of the plot steps up a gear. Eloise, Alfie’s sister, is in the midst of composing a eulogy for her boyfriend Adam’s recently deceased cat. She doesn’t love Adam but wants Adam to love her so that she doesn’t feel alone. Oh, and there’s JJ, a criminal barrister, who has the hots for Eloise, something to which she is not unresponsive, given the state of her current domestic situation.
Essentially a play about the complex tangle of truth, dubiety and downright lies that most long-term relationships have to deal with, it shows with some skill the way that individuals see and recall things differently – and how that is often determined by a confirmation bias of which it’s all to easy to be unaware.
The acting is on-point from the start, the chemistry evident between co-writers Clementine McNair Scott (Lotti) and Lizzy Thistlethwayte (as Dani). Tim Erimkhan (Alfie) appears genuinely remorseful of a one-night stand that could bring his world tumbling down with Mathilda Butler (Eloise) charmingly eccentric and Oisin Maguire (JJ) even more so. The staging is assured, segues efficient and the lighting triggers help signify the flashbacks that are a regular feature of the piece. And there’s a denouement that’s both chilling and tender which is not the oxymoron it may seem.
CAKE: A Crime of Love is quite an ambitious piece of theatre, particularly when it comes to the scripting. I’ll “fess up” that I occasionally lost the thread but managed to scramble my way back, eventually. Perhaps that was the intention – life is a complex plot and people do lose their way – but maybe a little more signposting might have helped.
That’s a minor grumble. On The Brink just about pulled this one off, at least judging by the audience’s reaction. In doing so, perhaps they answered their own question – you can have your cake and eat it.
