Ronán Noone’s “Thirst,” says director Courtney O’Connor, “is a study in contrasts.”
Tucked behind a kitchen door, separated from the privileged world of their employers, a trio of Irish immigrants hold their dreams in check as they endure endless household drudgery. The fact that their employers are the fictional Tyrone family from Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” only amplifies the distance between them.
“I love the way we are drawn into the mundane tasks of everyday people — cooking bacon and eggs, washing dishes — while right on the other side of the door, a grand, larger-than-life family is having a completely different experience,” says O’Connor, who is directing “Thirst” at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston Feb. 23-March 17.
“As an Irish-American whose great-grandparents were ‘in service,’ the struggles of Bridget, her niece Kathleen, and Jack resonated with me, but what I love about the script is that it works on so many levels.”
Boston-based playwright Noone has been celebrated with multiple awards, often for his plays focusing on the immigrant experience, including “The Lepers of Baile Baiste,” “The Blowin’ of Baile Gall,” “The Gigolo Confessions of Baile Breag,” “Brendan,” and “The Smuggler” (currently playing in Chicago’s Jackalope Theatre).
“For me,” says Noone, who celebrates three decades in the United States this spring, “this play compresses 30 years of what it means to come to America and put down new roots.”
At the same time, he has chosen to set “Thirst” at a very specific moment — the day in August 1912 when O’Neill’s epic drama takes place, tying in a very Irish immigrant experience with a high point in 20th century dramatic literature. He explored this idea in an earlier play, 2015′s “The Second Girl,” which was produced by the Huntington Theatre.
But Noone says that play was overwhelmed by the shadow of O’Neill and the despair of those characters.
“So much sound was leaking through the door into the kitchen in that play, the Tyrones became a distraction,” he says. “And the dialogue was so anachronistic, it didn’t sound like me.”
He went back and, as O’Connor describes it, “wrote a completely new play with the same set of characters” that moved the Tyrones to the background and allowed the lives of his three immigrants to take the spotlight.
Last summer, playwright and screenwriter Theresa Rebeck directed the world premiere of “Thirst” at the Dorset Theatre Festival in Vermont. She had encouraged Noone to make the story his, not O’Neill’s.
“She showed me that when I imbue the script with who I am, these individuals and their lives can resonate beyond me,” he says, “and the joy and grief among my three ‘ordinary’ characters stands in complete contrast to the Tyrone family drama.”
“Ronán’s script is full of wit and humor, in addition to their heartache and longing,” says O’Connor. “He takes an almost blasphemous swipe at O’Neill’s characters, but that makes us want to stay and find out what happens to these three characters.”
Says Noone, “I think the humor helped me escape that other room and O’Neill’s voice. But I also think that after 30 years I’ve come to enjoy what’s involved in the craft of playwriting, shrug off the desperation for success, and can focus on the story I want to tell.”
O’Connor says “Thirst” is so grounded in realistic details she hopes audiences will have the same visceral sense of connection to it no matter what their experience with immigration is.
“Everyone has a story,” she says. “We are often so busy with our own lives, we don’t pause to think that someone else is simultaneously experiencing something completely different. I love that Ronán pays homage to O’Neill, but this is very much Ronán’s story.”
Annette Miller reprises “Golda’s Balcony”
At this fraught political moment, Annette Miller returns to Boston with her tour de force performance as one-time Israeli prime minister Golda Meir in playwright William Gibson’s “Golda’s Balcony.” Miller, who earned an Elliot Norton Award for her performance in the same role 20 years ago, now brings a deeper understanding and appreciation of the political leader, with all her strengths and weaknesses. Shakespeare & Company’s encore production, which played at their Lenox home last August, will run at the Jackie Liebergott Black Box Theatre in the Emerson Paramount Center Feb. 23-March 10. Go to https://emersontheatres.org for tickets.
Looking for “Palestine”
The Center for Arabic Culture and “Her Story Is” are presenting actor/playwright Naila Said in her one-woman show, “Palestine,” based on Said’s memoir, “Looking for Palestine: Growing Up Confused in an Arab-American Family.” “Palestine,” to be performed March 2 at the First Church of Boston in the Back Bay, is described as “a unique passage into one of the most volatile and historic corners of the earth. With compassion, humor, and honesty {Said] makes a case for Palestinian and Arab points of view in ways that truly allow them to be heard.” Tickets are $35 at www.cacboston.org.
THIRST
Presented by Lyric Stage Company of Boston, 140 Clarendon St. Feb. 23-March 17. Tickets $15-$80. 617-585-5678, www.lyricstage.com