Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...“Birthday Candles” is about mental health, mortality and survival, about risking your heart (it reminds me of “Once”), and finding your place — a lifelong struggle, experience teaches us. It’s a personal piece but you’d swear it was about you."
Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...Directed by Jessica Thebus and starring Kate Fry as Ernestine from youth to centenarian, "Birthday Candles" captures a life defined by spikes of joy and devastation. Ernestine might not achieve her teenage ideals of rebelling against the universe. But as Haidle shows through a series of birthdays, Ernestine shapes a life of purpose and impact."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...As the play is constructed around the ritual of baking Ernestine’s birthday cake, the title’s reference to candles seems slightly off, until we consider that illumination—understanding— increases with years."
Let's Play Theatrical Reviews - Highly Recommended
"...Birthday Candles is this year's top performance production and a play that will change your life. Birthday Candles, which resonates with all humanity's triumphs and tragedies, will make you laugh and cry, and when it's over, your soul will be thankful you saw it. It's destined to become the new classic production."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...A few months ago, I was talking about one of Chicago’s finest actresses, Kate Fry, and how I never miss a play that she is in. No matter the role, the type of play ( comedy or serious), and in the very beginning of her Chicago career, a musical ( I think the first thing I saw with her was a mini version of “My Fair Lady” and I fell in love with her Eliza Doolittle. I am still enamored by her ability to take over the stage and in Northlight Theatre’s current production, “Birthday Candles”, a Chicago area premiere written by Noah Haidle, it seems as if the role she is playing was written with her in mind."
WTTW - Highly Recommended
"...Noah Haidle might not be an American playwright who has become a household name, although his remarkable, award-winning work - including "Smokefall," "Mr. Marmalade" and "Vigils" - has been widely produced at top theaters throughout the U.S. and beyond. But whether or not you have experienced his plays, there could be no better way to enter his world than to catch "Birthday Candles," now receiving an exceptional production by Northlight Theatre."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...Directed with a tender hand and much love and care by the talented Jessica Thebus, this production will go down in the history of Northlight Theatre as one of its finest and most memorable."
Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended
"...Birthday Candles is a new play now on stage at Northlight Theatre. It’s a poignant comedy/drama that will cure your emotional ills for an evening with its story of love, life and aging. And a goldfish named Atman."
Chicago On Stage - Highly Recommended
"...This play utterly wrecked me. I have not cried so much and so long at a play in...I don't know how long. And what's equally incredible is that this play also happens to be one of the funniest plays you could wish to see. Seeing how Haidle manages that trick-often in the same scene or even the same line-is enough to recommend that you hurry out to Skokie to see the magic for yourself, to see what theatre can be and what it was meant to be. But there is much more."
Chicago Culture Authority - Highly Recommended
"...Birthday Candles is the sleeper must-see show of the season. Do yourself a favor and go. But remember to bring tissues, and maybe someone you love."
Splash Magazine - Highly Recommended
"...The poignant and often times humorous play delves into the life of Ernestine Ashworth, a woman who questions her very existence at every turn. It explores the highlights, heartbreaks, and extraordinary moments that make up one woman's ordinary life. In her wider orbit, Ernestine reflects on how she impacts the lives of her family and friends that surround her."