鈥淣on-naturalism is my jam,鈥� says playwright Noah Haidle, speaking of his play Birthday Candles, now making its Broadway premiere at Roundabout Theatre Company鈥檚 American Airlines Theatre.
The play stars Debra Messing as Ernestine Ainsworth, who the audience first meets on her 17th birthday then, for the next 90 or so minutes, watches her entire life go by in a series of moments and scenes from birthdays throughout her next 90 years鈥ll while Messing bakes a single birthday cake on stage over the course of the play.
Haidle freely admits that he鈥檚 borrowed this device from Thornton Wilder鈥檚 one act play The Long Christmas Dinner, which follows several generations of a family at their annual Christmas gatherings. Wilder, like in his two Pulitizer-winning plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, broke away from the turn-of-the-century naturalism in theatre. Haidle follows.
鈥淚 have no interest in verisimilitude in theatre,鈥� he says, speaking of naturalism as it exists in television and film. And to put it on stage? 鈥淚t鈥檚 not using the medium to its highest ability. Theatre only exists in the imagination. The audience completes it.鈥�
In Birthday Candles, Messing never leaves the stage. Ernestine ages from 17 to 107 before the audiences鈥� eyes. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like a magic trick,鈥� says Haidle of his lead actress. 鈥淪he鈥檒l change her hair very quickly. You don鈥檛 notice it鈥� all of a sudden, a sweater is on and her voice has changed a little. No makeup, no canes. I鈥檝e never seen anything like it鈥his is purely in your imagination.鈥�
And like Wilder, Haidle uses these heightened theatrics to explore the simple, and the important, events that make up human existence. 鈥淲hat makes a lifetime鈥nto a life?鈥� the promotional material for the production ask.
鈥淗ave I wasted my life?鈥� Ernestine asks with her very first line of the play鈥t age 17. 鈥淭he whole play is watching her answer that question. And I think she finds that answer in expressing love to the people she loves鈥he finds meaning in family, in sacrifice, in rituals.鈥�
Haidle says it鈥檚 the least cynical play he鈥檚 ever written. And the play has changed even for him since its first production at its commissioning theatre, Detroit Public Theatre, two years ago. 鈥淲e had our first baby, our son just turned one year old鈥 now know what it鈥檚 like to mean it when you say I would rather die than someone else die.鈥�
"I would say that any spiritual awakening is simply realizing that all of the universe exists in each of us. Heaven is any place that one deems home. And this play is one person's discovery of that. It's just a shift in the mind of heaven, and that is where you are with your family."
-Matthew-Murphy.jpg)
