Review: THIRST at Irish Classical Theatre

Prequels, sequels, backstories....these are the topics that seem to pervade the creative minds of authors, playwrights and screen writers. STAR WARS  prequels were all the rage in Hollywood, literary writers are fascinated with unknown spouses or children-- think of  "The Time Traveler's Wife" or "The Clockmaker's Daughter." Broadway now has "OH, MARY," exploring Mary Todd Lincoln's life ( sort of!).  Buffalo's Irish Classical Theatre is now presenting a fascinatingly wonderful play THIRST by Ronan Noone, where we meet the downstairs staff of Eugene O'Neill's masterpiece A LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT.   

Bridget, the cook to the Tyrone family,  has toiled in the kitchen for 16 years since leaving Ireland. The sole communication she has had with her family is to ask her to watch over her niece Cathleen who joins the Tyrone house as a maid. The chauffeur Jack is smitten with Bridget, and hopes to break free of his menial job to explore his own business of car rentals. The upstairs/downstairs relation is explored in the Tyrone family Connecticut  lakeshore summer Home of Monte Cristo Cottage  in 1912. 

Aleks Malejs quite simply is  brilliant as Bridget Conroy. Her portrayal is engrossing as the self tortured stoic Irish woman who knows her place in society. Malejs shades the role with subtlety that represents a life lived full of disappointment and a dismal resolution to accept the cards she has been dealt. From excommunication from her family and homeland due to being a young unwed mother, to a self defeating prophecy that her sole destiny is to be a cook who can provide enough money to sustain herself and her family in Ireland.

Kai Crumley as Cathleen Mullin brings  a youthful optimism that embodies everything that Bridget is not. She knows her life will be better once she breaks free from the confines of servitude. Her overdramatic presence is based on the aspirations of becoming a great actress and marrying the fiancee she has back home in Ireland. But the  pie in the sky dreams of youth can also be shattered. Crumley is always entrancing to watch, with an inherent twinkle of hope alongside the heartbreak that seems to plague her and her aunt.

 Peter Johnson as Jack Smythe is the sole American in the kitchen, and his portrayal of the chauffeur  is also  based in a gritty reality.  He tries to overcome his own choices made in his younger life. His love for Bridget is mostly unrequited, despite his attempts. Johnson brings a humility to his role that bespeaks a life of regret alongside a yearning for an optimistic future.

Stage Director Kate LoConti  Alcocer paces the action with moments of day to day banal reality that would be found in a kitchen, allowing the audience to understand the monotony these characters endure. Tempers rage, alcohol is a demon from which Bridget can rarely escape, while Cathleen lightens the stage with bits of singing, dancing and prosaic nonsense. When the characters let down their guards, their humanity oozes out of the shells of their hardened lives.  Under LoConti Alcocer's detailed guidance, the burn is slow and calculated, with an ending that is quite satisfying without being melodramatic.

Malejs' tough as nails constitution  beautifully captures every stoic immigrant who came before her, allowing small hints of joy to escape only when she drinks. She refuses to let happiness enter her being at all costs--Irish Catholic guilt won't allow it. Crumley spars with everyone, as any young adult would, but the battle lines are crossed with Malejs, and the  two  expertly feud and fight to the point of breath holding among the audience. Meanwhile Jack is the embodiment of the devoted servant until his character is questioned by the Tyrone's. Here Johnson brings a rage that  rings true to how a black servant  would have been regarded in that era.

Playwright Ronan Noone pens a play that embodies lives formed from bad choices or simply wrong choices. Each player has a thirst for either something  bigger and better, or more literally a thirst for alcohol. The plight of immigrants is always in the forefront, as the privileged home owners live their dark lives on the other side of those kitchen doors. We grasp that the Tyrone family also is tortured by their own demons. The father is a  penny pinching has-been actor. Mother is prone to morphine induced fits of hysteria. One son  battles tuberculosis while the other parties much too much.  The construct of delving into the lives of the little known literary  "secondary  characters"  is both intriguing and wholly  satisfying.  Noone references specific actions that are going in with the Tyrone's without having to have a full knowledge of the O'Neill's magnum opus.

The highly detailed Scenic Design by David Dwyer allows for multiple playing areas of the busy kitchen, complete with working stove and sink. Costumes by Kenneth Shaw reflect the period and the lower class station of the staff.  With subtle lighting by Matthew DiVita , the overall ambience created by the design team makes for  enthralling production.

THIRST plays at Buffalo's Irish Classical Theatre through November 23, 2025. Contact irishclassical.com for more information                                                                                                                                                                                                              

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Best Musical - Top 3

1. INTO THE WOODS (O'Connell & Company)

26.5% of votes

2. JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR (Open Door Productions)

14.8% of votes

3. PIPPIN (O'Connell & Company)

12.8% of votes

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