Review: BIRTHDAY CANDLES at Wichita Community Theatre

Wichita Community Theatre opened its two-week run of Noah Haidle’s incredible script, Birthday Candles, this week. In nearly 90 tear-jerking minutes, Naidle's emotionally rich script captures the slice-of-life, day-to-day reality of human life as it phases from childhood to adulthood to old age in the life of Ernestine Ashworth.

In the first scene on her 17th birthday, Ernestine enthusiastically declares that she intends to rebel against the universe and “surprise God!” as her loving mother gathers the ingredients necessary to bake her daughter’s birthday cake using a recipe handed down through her family’s generations. Directed by Angela Forrest and starring Michele Janssens as Ernestine from youth to elderly, through a series of birthdays, the play captures her life, her purpose, and her family. The years pass with the sound of a candle being blown out and a candle in front of the stage being illuminated.

Ernestine centers her annual birthday celebration around the tradition of baking a golden butter cake; Actress Janssens prepares and bakes the cake on stage. The play quickly shifts to Ernestine’s eighteenth birthday, where we find a more subdued Ernestine after the loss of her devoted mother. But amid the loss, there is much humor in the play, mostly due to the awkward but endearing boy-next-door. Kenneth (Joshua Rosenberg). 

Young adult Ernestine is infatuated with her high school crush, Matt (Nathan Betzen), whom she marries and moves through motherhood, middle age, and grandmotherhood with. And just like in real life, she outlives many of the people she loves and cares for. Except for Janssens and Rosenberg, Director Forrest’s cast is double- and triple-cast.

Ernestine’s life is defined by family, and along the way, we meet Ernestine and Matt’s children, Billy, affectionally called “Goose” (Hanson Long), and Madeline (Ashley McCracken), and Billy’s slightly unstable wife, Joan (Miranda Windholz). There are grandchildren as well, each birth counterpointed by loss as Ernestine’s loved ones depart into a starry darkness.

Rodenberg offers a warmly grounded but forever optimistic Kenneth, with his presence serving as a guiding footstone across life’s pathway. His portrayal makes you silently cheer Kenneth on. The remaining cast members demonstrate grand versatility as they move through a multitude of characters in Ernestine’s life. As husband Matt, Betzen’s arc takes him from Ernestine’s handsome prom date to a needy senior citizen husband. His final touching scene with Ernestine is a living portrait of forgiveness. Life is mostly chaos, Ernestine concludes, and it’s best kept at bay through ritual and love. Janssens captures her joy at being surrounded by loved ones who are bound by blood, tradition, and butter cake, and her tears when she’s left to bake on her own. Ernestine’s life journey is an emotional one, and Janssens takes each step gracefully.

McCracken is warmly vivacious as Ernestine’s loving mother, Alice, and heart-rending as her tormented daughter Madeline, a young woman who can’t help but wear her emotions on her sleeve. Windholz creates an unforgettable neurotic daughter-in-law, complete with motor-mouthed complexities. Hanson captures the swagger of a brash young man and the humility of a middle-aged adult plagued by illness with vivid clarity.

We see infidelity and the fleeing stages of life through the silent character of Atman, the goldfish. Atman is a gift to Ernestine from Kenneth on her 17th birthday. Atman is blessed, or rather, cursed to have a very short memory span of three seconds. By the play’s final scene, 102 Atmans have come and gone, with Atman #103 there to remind us that life passes on and waits on no one.

Director Forrest is making her WCT directing debut with Birthday Candles, and I know it won’t be her last. Wichita audiences will be highly impressed by her solid directorial work. Abri Geist’s set balances the homey warmth of a 1970s functioning kitchen, painted in shades of fall orange and harvest yellow, and decorated with pieces of avocado green, and is nicely done. Make sure you check out the beautiful kitchen floor, painted by Forrest and Hanson. Joseph Heil’s light design is his typical good work.

At the end of the play, a butter cake is made, and you can smell its sweet aroma straight from the oven. You may ask yourself, " Have I wasted my life? Did I leave moments of grace unnoticed? Have I said “I love you” to those that I truly love? How much love have I left unsaid?” May you have many fruitful years to discover those answers.

Birthday Candles runs through Sunday, March 22, 2026. Wichita Community Theatre is located at 258 North Fountain, Wichita, KS.

Next at WCT is Euripides’ Medea (Apr 23 – May 3)