THE STORY: In the wake of her mother’s suicide, Esperanza spends her tenth birthday dancing with Tito, a boy from school. Soon, reality intertwines with dreams, and Esperanza’s hopes and fears come to life in the form of monsters, demons, and fairies. A Nuyorican comic romantic tragedy covered with magic and dipped in Brooklyn blood.
“In a truly beautiful and haunting work, Shanley manages to tug so strongly on our heartstrings and so persistently that they might just break.” —On Stage Blog.com
“…[this] profoundly unsettling play considers the traumatic effects of parental loss and abuse… CANDLELIGHT is a provocative work that defies the signature style of its acclaimed writer. If you’re in the market for something different and challenging, with themes that delve into serious issues of psychology and sociopathy with imagination and theatricality, this is a show to be seen and pondered.” —DC Metro Theater Arts
“CANDLELIGHT…is not just a reworked Romeo and Juliet/West Side Story. In place of feuding families or gangs, Esperanza and Tito live in a make-believe world of talking mirrors and magical robes, a scantily clad fairy and a heroic squirrel, which the two kids prefer to their other world, in Bushwick, Brooklyn, with their widowed, abusive and pill-addicted parents.” —New York Theatre.
