[2] The play opens with a tableau showing a missionary in the early days of white settlement in Australia giving an Aboriginal woman a Bible after her husband has just been shot by a British soldier.
It goes on to tell the story of Sweet William, a sad Aboriginal man living in contemporary Sydney with his wife Ruby, still practising Christianity, and children.
The coordinator of a course in Aboriginal theatre at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts wrote in a masters thesis (2010):[3]It moves in time and space between the pre-invasion and protection eras, the "two realities" referred to by Sweet William in the Epilogue.
Although the pre-invasion era is idealised in Act One, and the harshness of mission life presented in detail, the tone of The Cake Man is hopeful rather than bitter.The Cake Man was the first full-length play staged by the National Black Theatre,[4] with its first run of performances taking place at the Black Theatre Arts and Culture Centre in Redfern, Sydney on 12 January 1975, directed by Bob Maza, and with Brian Syron taking the role of Sweet William,[5] in his first performance in 10 years.
[1] On opening night, on 29 April 1977,[6] there were equal numbers of black and white people in the audience, which included Mum Shirl, founder of the Aboriginal Medical Service, and Paul Coe, both former residents of Erambie, as well as Merritt's mother and brothers.
[7] In early July 1982 The Cake Man played at the Parade Theatre in Kensington, as a warm-up run before touring to the United States.
[8] There were invitations to perform it elsewhere and to televise or film it in the United States, and Syron had hoped to put it on stage at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
[15] The play was notably revived for performances in Sydney and Perth in Belvoir and Yirra Yaakin co-production in 2013, with Luke Carroll and Irma Woods as Sweet William and Ruby.