3/26/2023 0 Comments Susannah flood fulfillment![]() ![]() There’s a truthfulness to the churn and cycle of “Birthday Candles” as a parable of aging. “Yes,” the woman next to me actually responded out loud.) (“Was I ever so young, so self-involved?” asks one character who was precisely that in a previous scene. The actors loop forward to play succeeding generations of Ernestine’s family, as scenes between the young and old trace familiar patterns, often overtly pandering to audience recognition. Symmetry and shorthand govern Haidle’s design, as they do many over-frosted confections. A chime indicates leaps forward in time - ding! Ernestine is 29 years old, 50 years old, old enough that she loses count, as loved ones come and go. “I am a rebel against the universe,” she declares, before settling down with her high school sweetheart (James Earl Jelks) in the house where she grew up, having kids who likewise insist they’ll never be like their parents, and so on. ![]() “In the career of my soul, how many times have I turned from wonder?” asks a lofty young Ernestine. From year to year, we’re always in the hours before the party, when Ernestine ( earnestly played by Debra Messing) is preparing the golden cake that her mother teaches her to make on her 17th birthday. ![]() The fine line between distilling so-called ordinary life and whipping up airy clichés is all but dissolved in this replay of one woman’s birthday over the course of many decades. But combining staple observations about everyday existence, as the playwright Noah Haidle does with a cosmic hand in “Birthday Candles,” does not guarantee they’ll rise into more than mollifying fluff. Birthdays will tick by like clockwork, a good cake recipe won’t fail and the young will chase their future while elders reminisce. Otherwise, we find ourselves in these characters’ heads - which is actually more interesting than finding ourselves almost in their beds.There are some things in life you can count on. The show, well-directed by Ethan McSweeny, is funniest when the situations become increasingly heated while the tone remains matter-of-fact, as when Michael and Sarah go straight from earnestly discussing A.A.’s “Big Book” to sex.īradshaw falters mainly with Michael’s condo-board president (Denny Dillon), a caricature whose behavior makes no sense. You can see how Michael would be stressed, especially since he’s a perpetually dissatisfied type - particularly in restaurants. He’s just as powerless against his obnoxiously loud upstairs neighbor, Ted (Jeff Biehl). But is he being held back because he’s black, or because he drinks? With the support of his colleague and girlfriend, Sarah (Susannah Flood), Michael’s able to get sober, but he can’t do much about his skin color. Here, the plot revolves around Michael (Gbenga Akinnagbe), a lawyer who’s yet to make partner after nine years at his firm. What hasn’t changed is Bradshaw’s concern with race, gender and power. “Fulfillment” is also one of the playwright’s most accessible and entertaining works - a pretty funny comedy, but with full frontal. At least here the sex is consensual and shared by adults who aren’t related to each other, which wasn’t always the case in his earlier shows. This is actually pretty conservative by Thomas Bradshaw’s standards. Indeed, Yehuda Duenyas had his hands full with “Fulfillment,” which features graphic intercourse, erotic spanking and choking. ![]() When a show has its own “sex choreographer,” it’s best to leave the kids at home. ![]()
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