THIRST

By RONÁN NOONE

November 7 – 23, 2025

Two Irish immigrants chase the American dream in this poignant counterpart to Eugene O’Neill’s magnum opus.

A witty Irish drama wrapped in humanity.

Take a peek on the other side of the kitchen door during Eugene O’Neill’s classic Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Failure, denial, and passion roil as two Irish servants and an American chauffeur pass the day in the kitchen of Monte Cristo Cottage- the Tyrone family’s residence in 1912. A companion piece to an Irish American classic, this refreshingly contemporary play forefronts the immigrant experience. As tensions rise and the past rears its head, the trio search for love, belonging, and a new sense of “home.”

Additional Programming:

Open Rehearsal (for Subscribers Only): Wednesday, October 29, 2025 at 6:30 PM

Community Matinee Preview ($12/Ticket): Thursday, November 6, 2025 at 10:00 AM

Opening Night Reception: Friday, November 7, 2025 at 7:30 PM

Pay-What-You-Will Performances*: 
Saturday, November 8, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Saturday, November 8, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Saturday, November 15, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Saturday, November 22, 2025 at 7:30 PM
*Purchase in-person at the Box Office on the day of the performance. Seating subject to availability.

Speaker Series: Sunday, November 9, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Featuring Playwright, Ronán Noone – Thirst: My Journey into Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night.

Talk Back Thursdays: Engage with the Creators! After every Thursday performance, stay for a free Talk Back where members of the creative team discuss their roles and answer your questions about their creative journey.
Thursday, November 13, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Thursday, November 20, 2025 at 7:30 PM

Playwright’s Note:

On the surface, I have more in common with James O’Neill than I do with his son, Eugene. James and I were both born in Ireland and immigrated to America,  although James traveled under much more difficult circumstances. But I understand the immigrant father’s ambition, the sense of uprootedness, the fear of financial instability, and the relentless desire to succeed. All of this is reflected in James Tyrone, the patriarch in Long Day’s Journey into Night (LDJN).

As an immigrant, you carry an internal pressure to prove the journey was worth it, to justify leaving behind your home, your language, your culture, and your identity in order to start anew in America. You feel you must make it. Thirst speaks directly to that experience. It explores what it takes for an immigrant to survive in a new land.

As Long Day’s Journey into Night happens in the living room, Thirst takes place in the kitchen. Both works unfold over the course of that same single day in August, 1912, but they tell parallel stories. Thirst is about the people on the other side of the wall: the ones serving the meals, cleaning up the mess, and managing their own hopes, fears, and dreams – while working for those whose lives are slowly unraveling.

Accordingly, Thirst is in conversation with LDJN, and to do that, I wanted to know more about the Irish servants, Cathleen and Bridget, and the American chauffeur, Jack Smythe. Only Cathleen appears onstage in LDJN,  yet all three are named. I built these characters from fragments: direct lines, numerous insults and passing references. Who were they? What were their worries? Did they laugh? Did they love? Were they ever homesick? Could they still find joy while surrounded by despair?

These questions sparked Thirst. And,  I wanted to go back in time to bring to life a world that has long since passed, but is deeply connected to who we are today. Because maybe it offers an inkling, a scent, or a reminder, of how our immigrant ancestors labored to build a foundation for our future. And that’s what writers do: we ask questions to try to understand the world, and to quench our own creative thirst.

I also found a deep connection with Eugene O’Neill as a writer. I understood what it meant to stare at the blank page and to fill it with fully realized, deeply human characters and people who speak with a poetic rhythm and emotional truth. I followed O’Neill and used LDJN’s classical structure to tell a story that distilled years of hardship into that single 24-hour window.

At the heart of Thirst is the immigrant experience and the tension between where you came from and where you’re trying to go. Ireland and America. The outsider and the insider. The servant and the served.

It’s an honor, privilege and delight to have Thirst in production at the Irish Classical Theatre Company. My hope is that the play reminds you of someone who took the leap, by choice or otherwise, who crossed an ocean, climbed a wall, boarded a plane or a boat, or swam a river to get here. They came because, despite its politics, it’s a beautiful place.

Ronán Noone, Playwright

Director’s Note:

Upon first reading Thirst, I immediately thought of how much Vincent O’Neill would love it.  As ICTC Co-Founder, and an Irish immigrant from Dublin, he would revel in the character’s plights, struggles, courage, and dreams, all within the touchstone Irish duality of despair and hope.  He would be positively charmed by the poetic text callbacks of Shakespeare and Shelley, the whispers of Chekhovian human behavior, the care and attention to heightened movement in characters’ action, and the music revolving through the unity of one day.  Of course, he would be moved by Irish playwright Ronán Noone’s brilliant concept: to shine a light on the goings on of the Long Day’s Journey into Night’s kitchen, serving as a foil to the toil of the famous Tyrone Family, in which he played several parts.  

The Tyrones stay, but our Trio moves.  Thirst is a play of movement, set in a time of movement.  Exploring, foraging, traveling, and immigrating presented life-changing challenges, and all were heightened through the lens of interracial relationships in a post-Civil War Era.  As explored in the play, The Terra Nova Expedition in the South Pole, surviving the sinking of the Titanic, and the political upheaval of the 1912 U.S. election, represent a host of new ventures of the time, reminding us that a courageous change of fortune is only a step away.  

And so, we look to the ritual of the wheel.  We watch the characters step on and off, spinning to bet on their futures. Their continuous movements can be found in the cycle of the day, the circle of the kitchen, the swirling ¾ time in music, the movement throughout the space, the spokes of the outside world, and the homey hub of the kitchen. Our story is in constant flux between stasis and impulse.  Which will win?  

Thirst is a fitting story to be told here at The Andrews, in the round.  We are invited by the hands of these characters into the intimate world of the kitchen.  This story in this space has an almost Beckettian feel, as the existential stakes are heightened, and characters weigh out whether to stay or go.

Courage and determination were as necessary in 1912 as they are today, with immigration as front and center as ever.  As this story resonates with our audiences in 2025, I invite us to reflect on our families’ origin stories.  What has it taken for us to get to where we are?  Who moved, who stayed, and who foraged new paths for a better life?  We are the sum of our ancestors’ stories.  We continue on. Thank you for journeying with us.  

This production is dedicated in loving memory to Vincent O’Neill.  Onwards.  

Kate LoConti Alcocer, Director

Dramaturgy Note:

“At the heart of Thirst,” proclaims playwright Ronán Noone, “is the immigrant experience and the tension between where you came from and where you’re trying to go.” While Bridget, Cathleen, and Jack struggle through this tension on a personal level, the United States blindly navigated the same torrid waters in the years leading up to the play’s setting. The Civil War ended on April 9, 1865, and – within days – President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in Ford’s Theatre. The following period, known as the Reconstruction, was an attempt to re-unite the country in the wake of war and tragedy. The Reconstruction Era brought radical changes to the Constitution, including the ratification of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments which declared the abolition of slavery, validated formerly enslaved men as American citizens, and granted Black men the right to vote, respectively. As part of Reconstruction, martial law was declared in multiple Southern states as punishment for secession. 

Amending the Constitution, however, was not enough to ensure equality for Black Americans. In the South, lawmakers exploited a loophole in the 13th Amendment stating that citizens could not be enslaved unless they were convicted of a crime. Between 1865 and 1866, former Confederate state legislatures enacted the Black Codes, a set of laws intended to force Black Americans back into “an exploitative labor system that resembled the plantation regime in all but name.” Black people were unfairly subjected to the Black Code’s vagrancy laws. These “’vagrants’ most often entered a system of incarceration administered by private industry. Known as convict leasing, this system allowed for the virtual enslavement of people who had been convicted of a crime, even if those ‘crimes’ were for things like ‘walking without a purpose’ or ‘walking at night,’ for which law enforcement officials in the South aggressively targeted Black people” (Elizabeth Hinton). In response to the racist implementation of the Black Codes and the later addition of the Jim Crow laws, the Great Migration began. 

Over the course of 60 years, between 1910 and 1970, approximately five to six million Black Americans moved from the South to northern and western states. According to the National Archives, “the driving force behind the mass movement was to escape racial violence, pursue economic and educational opportunities, and obtain freedom from the oppression of Jim Crow” (USNARA). While American citizens migrated for better opportunities and more equal treatment in their own country, the United States was also a destination for other immigrants hoping for the same. According to Boston College, Irish immigrants, many fleeing the Great Irish Famine during the 1840-50s, “comprised 90% of Boston’s foreign-born residents. For many new arrivals, Boston proved to be a temporary destination and jumping-off point for jobs in outlying mill towns or work building railroads, canals, and other construction projects… Immigrant men worked as day laborers and skilled tradesmen, while women found work in domestic service and sewing.” 

Our characters’ journeys have brought them to the cottage of the Tyrone family in the early hours of an August day in 1912. All three have made difficult choices in search of more fulfilling, stable lives, yet none of them are where they’d like to be. As you join Bridget, Jack, and Cathleen in this seaside cottage kitchen, I invite you to think about the journey that has lead you to these seats. How far have you traveled to be here? How far do you still have to go?

M. Landon, Associate Dramaturg

About the Creatives:

Kai Crumley (Cathleen Mullin) Kai is elated to be making her debut at the Irish Classical Theatre Company, working alongside such a phenomenal team of actors and technicians! She holds a BFA in Acting and Directing from Stephen F. Austin State University and is a Houston, Texas, native. Recently, Kai has had the pleasure of working with numerous theatre companies in WNY, including Theatre of Youth, the Kenan Center, and the D’Youville Kavinoky. She was a 2025 Artie Nominee for Leading Actress in a Play for her role of Lily in The Early Girl with the Brazen-Faced Varlets. 

Peter Johnson (Jack Smythe) Peter is an actor, writer, and film director from Buffalo, New York. As an Actor, he is a member of the screen actors guild and has TV credits from networks such as Lifetime, ION, and Hallmark, along with major studio credits from films such as Marshall, and The First Purge. Peter also has film industry credits as a Casting Director. He is the third member of the company “Casting Buffalo” which casts films, commercials and industrial training videos throughout the Tri state area. Peter has an MFA from the University at Buffalo in media production and is an adjunct professor at SUNY Buffalo State College in their theater department. Peter was recently nominated for an Artie Award for Outstanding Leading Actor for his role as Rooftop in Road Less Traveled Productions’ Our Lady of 121st Street.

Aleks Malejs (Bridget Conroy) Aleks is humbled to be returning to ICTC in Thirst. Aleks holds an MFA in Acting from The New School for Drama in NYC and a BFA in Acting from The University of Montana. Two national tours with the Montana Repertory Theatre include It’s a Wonderful Life (1999), and Bus Stop (2011). ICTC features include Betrayal (Emma), The Tempest (Prospera) and A MidSummer Night’s Dream (Hippolyta/Titania) in collaboration with the BPO, Sweet Bird of Youth (Princess), ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore (Hippolyta/Poggio), and Sive (Mena) (Artie Award 2019). Featured roles at D’Youville’s Kavinoky Theatre consist of People, Places & Things (Emma) (Artie Award 2023), POTUS (Bernadette), The Sound Inside (Bella), Indecent (Halina), To Kill a Mockingbird (Scout), 1984 (Julia), Sweeney Todd (Beggar Woman), and Grounded (Artie Award 2017). Alleyway Theatre roles include The Natural Horse (Svetka), and BURST (Weaver). Aleks made her JRT debut earlier this year as Julia in The Wanderers. Aleks is a spokesperson for West Herr Auto Group and can be heard on monthly radio spots. Aleks also publicly represents Save the Michaels of the World and advocates ferociously for individuals and families who are personally impacted by addiction. Visit www.aleksmalejs.com

Kate LoConti Alcocer (Director) Kate is honored to return to the Director’s seat here at Irish Classical, where she proudly served as Executive Artistic Director from 2020 to 2023, and currently holds the title of Advisory Director. Most recently at ICTC, Kate performed in The Price, for which she won her third Artie Award (for Outstanding Leading Actress). Kate has had the great fortune of performing internationally in Spain, London, and Venezuela, as well as nationally at Classic Stage Company, The Goodman, Steppenwolf, Chicago Shakespeare, and Shattered Globe. Locally, she has worked with many prestigious theatre companies including: ICTC, SIDP, The Kavinoky, BUA, and Theatre For Change, and has been a Voice-Over Artist and Theatre Educator for over two decades.  Kate is a proud member of the full-time Faculty of Niagara University’s Theatre Studies and Fine Arts Department. She earned an MFA with Honors in Acting from Columbia University, where she received the Bob Hope Fellowship. 

About the Playwright:

Ronán Noone believes in playing with a myriad of elements to find the right way to tell a good story; a necessary story that tells us who we are, where we have been, and where we are going.

He believes in stories that resonate beyond the theatre’s door and that add ideas to the national conversation. He believes in the playwright as a thinker traveling in the direction of their fear. His play The Smuggler won the Best Playwright award at the 1st Irish Festival of New York, (2019). The Second Girl was the inaugural winner of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) Excellence in Playwriting Award (2015) and an Edgerton Award winner in 2014. Additional plays include Thirst, The Atheis, Brendan, Scenes from an Adultery, The Lepers of Baile Baiste, The Blowin of Baile Gall, The Gigolo of Baile Breag (The Baile Trilogy), The Compass Rose, Little Black Dress, and A Small Death.

The Atheist played at the Huntington Theatre Company, Boston, and the Williamstown Theatre Festival. It was also co-produced by The Culture Project and Ted Mann’s Circle in the Square productions in New York, and received both Drama Desk and Drama League acting nominations. Other recent international productions have taken place in the UK (London and Edinburgh), Spain, India, Canada, the Philippines, and Ireland.

His full-length and ten-minute plays are published by Samuel French, Smith and Kraus, Bakers Plays, Dramatists Play Service, and upcoming with TRW Plays. Awards include Jeff recommendations in Chicago; Helen Hayes recommendations in Washington D.C.; Ovation recommendations in Los Angeles; Critics Award in Austin, Texas; American Critics Steinberg New Play Award nomination; nomination for best play at 1st Irish Festival New York 2013 and 2015; three Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Awards for Best New Play; the Boston Theatre Critics Association’s Elliot Norton Outstanding Script Award; The Kennedy Center Michael Kanin National Playwriting Award; a 2014 Edgerton New American Play Award, and a finalist for the ScreenCraft Stage Play Award (2020).

His essay on theatre, “Being Afraid to Breathe,” is published by the Princeton University Library Chronicle LXVIII and his play The Second Girl was featured and published in the fall 2016 edition of the Eugene O’Neill Review published by Penn State University Press. Other plays have been featured in books on Irish studies, such as Anail an Bheil Bheo: Orality and Modern Irish Culture and Sinead Moynihan’s Other People’s Diasporas. Upcoming is his book – 36 Essential lessons for Playwriting in the Classroom.

Noone has attended the Sundance Theatre Workshop and developed work at New York Stage and Film, The Orchard Project, Eugene O’ Neill Foundation Festival at Tao House in Danville CA, The Lark Theatre, Theresa Rebeck’s Vermont Writer’s Retreat, American Conservatory Theatre (ACT) in San Francisco, and The Hermitage Artist Retreat in Florida.

He is an Artistic Associate at the Vineyard Playhouse on Martha’s Vineyard and he has developed work for television with Pretty Matches Productions and the reality TV-based production company High Noon Entertainment. His 2014 live action short The Accident (based on his short play I Glue You) has played the Boston International Film Festival and the Montclair Film Festival. Noone is also on the board of the Éire Society of Boston.

After studying politics and mathematics at University in Galway (NUIG), Ireland, he began a writing career with a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism. He wrote for various newspapers in Ireland with a small stint in Prague. After an editor said his writing was de-constructive and did not meet the formula for a newspaper’s parameters, he wrote his first play. Later, he immigrated to America and submitted that play to Boston Playwrights’ Theatre and studied with Nobel laureate Derek Walcott. There he understood that deconstruction was not a bad word and for a play to develop you need the support, belief, and resources of a theatre community behind you. As a teacher, he guides writers to search for the beating heart in their work, to critique with care, to rewrite using the pen as a scalpel, and to read and reread plays, screenplays, and TV pilots. https://www.ronannoone.com/about