Marc Masterson, in announcing his retirement as City Theatre co-artistic director in June, also announced his imminent return as a director. That time has arrived, with the opening March 14, 2025, of Birthday Candles.
Masterson returned to the South Side company in 2018 for his second stint as artistic director, after a 20-year gap. Birthday Candles marks his 54th City Theatre production as a director, most recently of last year’s Andy Warhol in Iran.
A play about birthdays seems fitting, as City Theatre is in the midst of its 50th season.
In 90 minutes, Birthday Candles focuses on intermittent birthdays during 84 years in a woman’s life, from age 17 to 101. The routine of making a cake from scratch is entwined with family and legacy at each birthday celebration.
“This beautiful play celebrates rituals and connections on the page and on the stage. There are decades of City Theatre experience in this talented cast. We can’t wait to share our gift of Noah Haidle’s Birthday Candles with everyone,” Masterson said in a statement.
The Noah Haidle play, hailed as “epic and beautifully written” by the New York Daily News, premiered on Broadway on April 10, 2022. Smokefall, another work by the award-winning playwright, had its world premiere at South Coast Rep in Costa Mesa, Calif., as part of Masterson’s first season there as artistic director.
Haidle, in an interview for Broadway’s Roundabout Theatre, said he was inspired to write Birthday Candles by three things: “When I was 19, I read that goldfish have a three second memory span; when I was 34, I read that Arthur Schopenhauer spent the last years of his life alone in Frankfurt, Germany, playing the violin to his dog … and third … I encountered Thornton Wilder’s A Long Christmas Dinner.”
Haidle said he “straight up stole the conceit of Wilder’s play,” which drops in on Christmases in the life of a family. The playwright added that he had the blessing of Wilder’s estate, and, “as T.S. Eliot wrote, minor poets borrow, major poets steal.”
The City Theatre cast includes Robin Walsh (Little Gem, Gompers at City) as birthday girl Ernestine. Walsh originated roles in The Niceties and Gideon’s Knot for the Contemporary American Theater Festival, and won a Harry Schwalb Excellence in the Arts Award, a Pittsburgh Foundation Creative Achievement Award and was a Post-Gazette Performer of the Year.
The cast of City returnees also comprises Deena Aziz (American Fast, 2023), Gavin Lawrence (Birth of the Boom, 1997, Spunk, 1995) José Perez (Native Gardens, 2023), Saige Smith (POTUS …, 2024, Clydes, 2023) and Andrew William Smith (The Royale).
The creative team includes scenic design by Sasha Jin Schwartz, costume design by Damian E. Dominguez, lighting design by Xuewei (Eva) Hu and sound design by Darron L. West.
TICKETS AND DETAILS
Birthday Candles is on the Main Stage at City Theatre, 1300 Bingham Street, South Side, March 8 – 30, 2025. Tickets: visit https://citytheatrecompany.org/play/birthday-candles/ or call 412-431-2489 (CITY).
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