What a slice: Adobe Theater serves up Southern-fried comedy with 'The Red Velvet Cake War'

This Southern-fried comedy spins out of control when a neighbor’s pet devours everything, a one-eyed suitor shows up to declare his love, and a woman declares a high-stakes wager on who can bake the best red velvet cake.

The Adobe Theater is staging “The Red Velvet Cake War” on weekends from Friday, Dec. 6, through Dec. 22, plus two Thursday performances on Dec. 12 and Dec. 19.

“It’s about family bonding and the lengths you go to ensure the success of the ones you love,” said director Cameron Illidge-Welch.

The comedy takes place in 1989 in Sweetgum, Texas, “somewhere between Dallas and the end of the world,” Illidge-Welch said.

The audience meets the three Verdeen cousins — Gaynelle, Peaches and Jimmie Wyvette — who could not have picked a worse time to throw their family reunion. Their outrageous antics have delighted local gossips and the eyes of Texas are upon them, as their self-righteous Aunt LaMerle is quick to point out. Having “accidentally” crashed her minivan through the bedroom wall of her husband’s girlfriend’s double-wide, Gaynelle is one frazzled nerve away from a spectacular meltdown.

“Gaynelle is going through a divorce,” Illidge-Welch said. “They all have big hair.”

Wicked Aunt LaMerle is trying to commit Gaynelle to a mental health facility. To foil the plan, Peaches and Jimmie Wyvette throw the reunion to celebrate Uncle Aubrey’s 91st birthday. They’re trying to prove Gaynelle’s sanity to court-appointed psychiatrist Elsa Dowdall.

Firebrand Peaches is the number one mortuarial cosmetologist in the tri-county area. She’s struggling to decide if it’s time to have her long-absent trucker husband declared dead. And Jimmie Wyvette, the rough-around-the-edges store manager of Whatley’s Western Wear, is resorting to extreme measures to outmaneuver a prissy neighbor for the affections of the town’s newest widower.

Unfortunately, they face an uphill battle as a parade of wildly eccentric Verdeens gather on the hottest day of July, smack-dab in the middle of Texas. The lovesick Newt is the owner of a wig and bait shop.

“Aunt LaMerle makes a bet with Gaynelle over who bakes the best red velvet cake,” Illidge-Welch said. “Uncle Aubrey will taste the cakes and decide whose is best.”

Things spin out of control when a neighbor’s pet devours everything edible and a one-eyed suitor shows up to declare his love.

Then a tornado churns into town.

Illidge-Welch declares himself “the king of the double-wide trailer.”

“I am a Southerner,” he said. “I see so much of my family in this play. I have made it my mission to make this a love letter to the South.”