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Birthday Candles

  • Noah Haidle
  • Full Length Play, Drama, 1980s, 1940s / WWII, 1920s, New Millennium/21st Century, 1930s, 1990s, 1950s, 1970s, 1960s
  • 3M, 3F
  • ISBN: 9780573710070

This poignant and funny Broadway hit, about the extraordinary moments that make up one woman’s ordinary life, explores the highlights and heartbreaks of 100 years in just 90 minutes.

More information

Description

  • Full Length Play
  • Drama
  • 90 minutes

  • Time Period: 1980s, 1940s / WWII, 1920s, New Millennium/21st Century, 1930s, 1990s, 1950s, 1970s, 1960s
  • Target Audience: Adult
  • Set Requirements: Interior Set
  • Cautions: Strong Language

  • Performance Group:
  • Community Theatre, Professional Theatre
Ernestine Ashworth spends her 17th birthday agonizing over her insignificance in the universe. Soon enough, it’s her 18th birthday. Even sooner, her 41st. Her 70th. Her 101st. Five generations, an infinity of dreams, and one cake baked over a century.

This poignant and funny play takes its audience through the highlights, heartbreaks and extraordinary moments that make up one woman’s ordinary life.
REVIEWS:

"A truly must-see show. Epic and beautifully written."

 New York Daily News

"A true gift."

 Variety

"There were plenty of empathetic sniffles and sighs in the audience during the performance. The most moving moments to me were those quiet exchanges that functioned as silhouettes for unspoken griefs."

 The New York Times

"Affecting... it confronts the big and small questions of existence and time itself."

 The Daily Beast

"Warm... bubbles up our own cherished and difficult memories of the people in our lives who’ve come and gone."

 The New York Post

Premiere Production: Birthday Candles premiered on Broadway at the American Airlines Theatre on April 10, 2022. Directed by Vivienne Benesch, the production starred Debra Messing and featured Susannah Flood, Enrico Colantoni, John Earl Jelks, Christopher Livingston and Crystal Finn.

Characters

  • Casting: 3M, 3F
  • Casting Attributes: Strong Role for Leading Woman (Star Vehicle)

  • Twelve roles, six actors, one goldfish.

  • ERNESTINE ASHWORTH – Travels from age seven to 107. In that time she will be a daughter, a girlfriend, a wife, a mother, a friend, an aunt, a mother-in-law, a widow, a second wife, a grandmother, a great grandmother, and a great great grandmother.
    ALICE – Selfless. Strong. Ernestine’s mother.
    KENNETH – Ernestine’s awkward and annoying next door neighbor.
    MATT – Chiseled jawline. A middle linebacker on the high school football team. Ernestine’s boyfriend then husband.
    BILLY – Sensitive. An ear for music. Ernestine and Matt’s son.
    MADELINE – Troubled. Bemused. Beautiful. Erudite. Ernestine and Matt’s daughter. Played by actor playing Alice.
    JOAN – Anxious. Very anxious. Billy’s wife.
    ALEX – Takes no bullshit. Billy and Joan’s daughter. Played by actor playing Joan.
    ERNIE – Ethereal. Vivacious. She doesn’t walk, she glides. Alex’s daughter. Played by actor playing Alice and Madeline.
    WILLIAM – Thirteen. Grand. Played by actor playing Matt.
    JOHN – A man woken up in the middle of the night. Played by actor playing Billy.
    BETH – John’s domestic partner, she quit smoking ten years ago and hasn’t been in a good mood since. Played by actor playing Joan and Alex.

    • Available Material

    Name Price
    Birthday Candles Script This is optional. Order Now

    Ernestine Ashworth spends her 17th birthday agonizing over her insignificance in the universe. Soon enough, it’s her 18th birthday. Even sooner, her 41st. Her 70th. Her 101st. Five generations, an infinity of dreams, and one cake baked over a century.

    This poignant and funny play takes its audience through the highlights, heartbreaks and extraordinary moments that make up one woman’s ordinary life.

    		$24.95

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