1st Stage Theatre Presents Noah Haidle's Birthday Candles

“Birthday Candles,” Noah Haidle’s time-bending portrait of one life seen through a century of birthdays, lights up 1st Stage Theatre in Tysons from December 4–21, 2025. The play follows Ernestine Ashworth from age 17 to 101 as cakes are baked, clocks chime, and the ordinary becomes quietly extraordinary—an intimate look at how love, loss, and small rituals accrue into a life. As the Chicago Tribune put it, it’s the kind of show that reminds audiences “why people go to the theater.”

Birthday Candles at 1st Stage Theatre

Artistic Director Alex Levy directs the production, shaping Haidle’s elegant mosaic of moments for 1st Stage’s intimate space in Tysons. Levy’s staging will lean into the work’s simple theatrical grammar—shifts of light and sound instead of scene breaks—to carry Ernestine across decades without ever leaving the kitchen table.

The cast features a slate of 1st Stage favorites: Deidra LaWan Starnes, Hannah Taylor, Jacob Yeh, Chris Genebach, Patrick Joy, and Surasree Das. Their roles span generations and relationships around Ernestine, tracing how family myths form and fracture as years pass. The design team includes scenic designer Jonathan Dahm Robertson, lighting designer Helen Garcia Alton, sound designer Sarah O’Halloran, costume designer Lynly Saunders, props designer Cindy Jacobs, with intimacy coaching by Lorraine Ressegger—an ensemble of artists poised to make time itself feel tactile.

Performances run Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 2:00 and 7:30 p.m., and Sundays at 2:00 p.m., with the official opening on Saturday, December 6 at 7:30 p.m. 1st Stage is located at 1524 Spring Hill Road in Tysons, easily accessible via the Silver Line’s Spring Hill station.

Audiences can also stick around after the some 2 pm performances for Community Conversations. On Saturday, December 6, the design team will talk about crafting the world of the play; on Sunday, December 7, director Alex Levy will discuss bringing the story to life; and on Saturday, December 13, members of the cast will join for a post-show chat.

For audiences in the DC area, “Birthday Candles” offers a tender, funny reminder that meaning rarely arrives in grand gestures; it shows up in the everyday—the recipe you keep, the people who return to your table, and the moments that add up when you’re not counting the years.