Wilder’s The Long Christmas Dinner and Broadway’s Birthday Candles: Interviews with Playwright Noah Haidle and Director Vivienne Benesch

Abstract

American playwright Noah Haidle has been outspoken in his appreciation for the work of Thornton Wilder. His Birthday Candles borrows reverently and openly from Wilder’s The Long Christmas Dinner (Collected Plays 61–79) and its intriguing device of watching actors age onstage without the use of elaborate costumes, makeup, or special effects. Inevitably, the performers must depend upon assiduous technique and genuine charisma to carry out the illusion.Birthday Candles, a Detroit Public Theatre commission, had its world premiere in the spring of 2018. At the helm was Vivienne Benesch, who also directed Roundabout Theatre Company’s production at Broadway’s American Airlines Theatre (10 April–29 May 2022). The play’s setting is Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Haidle was born and raised. The main character, Ernestine Ashworth, is having a lifetime of birthdays, from seventeen to one hundred and seven: ninety years’ worth in ninety minutes. From her first line of text to the final blackout, the actor playing Ernestine does not leave the stage.The New York premiere featured a six-actor ensemble headlined by stage and screen star Debra Messing. On the play’s opening night, Enrico Colantoni played Kenneth, Crystal Finn played Joan/Alex/Beth, Susannah Flood played Alice/Madeline/Ernie, John Earl Jelks played Matt/William, and Christopher Livingston played Billy/John (Fig. 1). Kate Hopgood composed original music for the production. The sets were designed by Christine Jones, the lighting by Jen Schriever, the sound by John Gromada, the costumes by Toni-Leslie James, the hair and wigs by Matthew B. Armentrout, and the makeup by Kirk Cambridge-Del Pesche.On 2 May 2022, Terryl W. Hallquist, Performance Editor of the Thornton Wilder Journal, asked if I would be interested in interviewing Haidle. By chance, two members of the cast of Birthday Candles, Finn and Flood, were my schoolmates from Brown University’s MFA Acting Program. I attended the performance on 11 May. After the show, I asked Finn how I could get a copy of the script. The next day, she sent me a PDF of a rehearsal draft dated 7 January 2022. She also shared Haidle’s personal email with me. Without her generosity, the following interviews might never have occurred.In truth, they almost did not. At that time, Haidle was in the process of moving across the country. When I spoke to him on 20 May, he and his wife and son were between homes. Despite this, I found him to be affable and ebullient. In hindsight, I believe his admiration for Wilder prevailed. Haidle is a graduate of Princeton University and the Juilliard School. His plays have been produced in New York on and Off-Broadway, in regional theaters, and worldwide. In addition to his work in the theater, he is also a screenwriter. *My discussion with Haidle was jocular, absorbing, and inspirational—so much so that I sought to expand this piece with a contribution from his director, Vivienne Benesch. We spoke on 23 June 2022, after Birthday Candles had closed on Broadway. She was bright and amiable, the epitome of graciousness.A graduate of Brown University and NYU’s MFA Acting Program, Benesch has had a successful career on the stage, earning an Obie Award for her performance in Lee Blessing’s Going to St. Ives. In 2017, she received the Zelda Fichandler Award from the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation. She is currently the artistic director of North Carolina’s PlayMakers Repertory Company.