“Thirst” – Written by Ronan Noone. Directed by Courtney O’Connor. Presented by The Lyric Stage Company of Boston, 140 Clarendon Street, Boston, through March 17.
By Michele Markarian
Set in Connecticut in 1912, “Thirst” cleverly takes place in the kitchen of the Tyrone (of “Long Day’s Journey into Night”) household, where cook Bridget (Aimee Doherty), her niece Cathleen (Kate Fitzgerald) and driver Jack Smythe (Michael Kaye) lie in wait to serve the erratic needs of the Tyrones. Bridget is from Ireland, forced to come to America for a so-called sin that she committed. Cathleen, her niece, is in her care. Cathleen also came over from Ireland on the Titanic, which she somehow managed to survive. Jack is a former alcoholic who credits the snappish Bridget for getting him sober and finding him his position as Mary Tyrone’s driver, despite the fact that Bridget drinks quite heavily herself.
Jack is in love with Bridget, who loves him back but can only express it when she’s drinking. Turns out that Bridget made a promise to God: if he kept her safe in America, she would keep herself pure. Jack, who’s American, can’t understand her reasoning – “What kind of race of people are you that love to struggle so much?” he asks her. “God doesn’t want your suffering.” So much of Bridget’s meanness towards herself and the outside world is a fear that she hasn’t lived up to be the good girl that her Catholic religion demands of her. Cathleen is younger and freer, with less baggage and a desire to be an actress. Mr. Tyrone, a retired actor himself, has been giving her lessons. In general, though, the Tyrones frustrate and amuse their employees with their drunken, drug-addicted behavior and their peculiarities, and they make fun of them behind their backs. Still, their anxieties simmer beneath the surface – will Jack get the love he needs from Bridget, or will he run away, loveless and alone? Will Bridget give into her feelings for Jack – a risky move, in my book – or will she succumb to drink and turn into her own embittered version of Mary Tyrone? Will Cathleen succumb to a broken heart and go back to Ireland, or will she stay and pursue her dream of becoming an actress? Unlike the Tyrones, Jack, Bridget, and Cathleen are actually capable of making choices that could change their lives for the better.
There’s a lot to like in this production. Doherty strikes just the right tone as Bridget, with flashes of vulnerability beneath the hard, biting exterior. “You’re the bane of my existence,” she tells her niece, who is just as cruel back. There’s very little tenderness between them, although they are attached to one another. Kaye’s Jack is self-contained, a man who’s trying to hold himself together. You get the sense that he could blow at any minute. He, too, is plagued by his past behavior. As Cathleen, Fitzgerald is absolutely luminous. Her lightness is in sharp contrast to the two older characters who struggle with their memories. The horrors she saw on the Titanic, a personal loss she suffered – her buoyancy won’t be deflated. She will rise above anything that’s thrown her way. Jack’s and Bridget’s ability to do so feels much more precarious.
Janie E. Howland’s reconstruction of a 1912 kitchen is superb. Water comes out of the tap, smoke comes off the stove, the smell of bacon fills the theater. This, plus O’Connor’s limber direction, makes for a very vivid afternoon of theater. For tickets and information, go to www.lyricstage.com
