WILLIAMSTON, MI–In Williamston Theatre’s intimate setting Terry Guest’s world premiere of “Thirst” floods the stage with questions of morality, power and survival.
The theater company—which is producing its 99th show—commissioned Guest to write
a play about water.

With Thirst, he delivered, but the work playing on Williamston’s stage is about far more
than water. It is about environmental dangers, power, class inequities, late-stage
capitalism and social justice. And in a stunning fashion, it is also about the seduction of
wealth.

The latter is not a new literary concept. Christian scripture warns that the love of money
is the root of all evil. Thirst illustrates the consequences of that lust in a gut-wrenching
and compelling tale set in Michigan’s future after a catastrophic oil spill has killed
millions, caused ongoing health issues and malnutrition, and destroyed the Great Lakes
and the 21 percent of the world’s freshwater that it contains. Nor does Guest let people
escape into an easy condemnation of the “other.” Few, he warns, are able to escape
wealth’s seduction.

The four characters inhabiting Guest’s work aren’t divided into good and evil, though it
is tempting to classify them that way. They often protest that they are good people
knowing their claims are greeted with skepticism. It poses the questions: Can you still
be a good person if you have a strong reason to commit an evil/harmful act? Is it
justifiable to do what you know is wrong for money if that money can be used to do
good and wipe out the harm? Is it justifiable to inflict harm if the target seems to deserve
it?

Thirst challenges many assumptions of the capitalist mindset. Businesses must
maximize profit, even if that means creating hardship for their customers and
employees. Everything is a commodity. Ethics are irrelevant if they harm the bottom line.
Economically oppressed people can be excused for cheating to improve their financial
situation. You’re a “winner” if you find loopholes to evade your responsibilities to society.
The wealthy are entitled to luxuries and the poor are irresponsible if they “indulge” in
those same things. Everyone has a right to profit.

The play, Williamston’s first commission, dramatically challenges those assumptions.
Nor does it implicate only the privileged. Instead, it suggests that everyone plays a role
in society’s current state and what it might become.

Directed by Tony Caselli, the four actors quickly create the world in which water is
precious and economic injustice and inequities are not theoretical. With Caselli’s typical tight directing, suspense builds with each twist until the final set of denouements feel like gut punches with one particular line sure to echo long after leaving the theater. He provides space for the audience to digest the enormity of the characters’ suffering.

Will Myers designs projections that raise the stakes and provide a visual understanding
of the severity of the ecological catastrophe. He makes certain that the story’s central
issue is never far from the vision of the audience.

Zahirah Muhammad as Jazz creates a highly complex character who wrestles with the
moral questions at the heart of the play. It’s a challenging task to be both street-smart
and vulnerable, both skeptical and trusting. The character’s life has been filled with
trauma, but Muhammad lets her access hints of joy, even if only for brief moments. The
subtlety she brings to the role is what makes everything fall into place and invites the
audience to heavily invest in the outcome.

There are times when the swing between her early strength and aggressiveness and
her subsequent timidity feels too wide, but that is more an issue with the script than her
portrayal of the character.

Thirst only works if there is ambiguity surrounding the decisions Jazz makes and
Muhammad invites the audience to join Jazz in grappling with these tough issues. The
questions enthrall when the audience stands in her boots.

Jayla Fletcher plays Spencer, chauffeur to the wealthy Doyle couple on whose estate all
the action takes place. Mostly phlegmatic in the beginning, her reveals draw the
audience deeper into the world Guest created as her life and observations add
complexities to the relationships.

The cast is completed by two powerhouses well-known to Michigan audiences, John
Lepard and Janet Haley. As the billionaire couple with little love for each other and an
overweening sense of privilege, they are the picture of what the world often establishes
as “success.”

We meet Lepard’s Frank first, a weak man who cares only about his personal pleasures
and protecting his status in life—though not enough to make the necessary changes
himself. While his character is contemptible, Lepard skillfully dances the line of giving
the audience reason to think that maybe, just maybe, he has redeemable qualities.

There could be no better actor than Haley to create the role of Florence Doyle. CEO of
the company that manufactures the hydration tablets people need to survive and owner
of the local low-income housing, Florence shimmers with power and Haley ensures she
has the compelling presence and gravitas of a woman commanding her world.
While it is no spoiler to say that if there is a villain in this play, it would be Florence,
calling her such is too simple of a categorization and Haley prevents the audience from falling into easy, cheap assumptions. Like many of today’s billionaires, Florence publicly
proclaims how she has used her wealth to save the world and expects the world to be
grateful for her generosity. She insists she has sacrificed for the good of all. Haley
portrays a woman utterly convinced of her own power and entitlement to the privileges it
affords, a woman who believes every word she says.

At the same time, she convincingly shows Florence’s weaknesses, both physical and
emotional. When the character’s health deteriorates, Haley’s physicality ups the stakes.
What she accomplishes in the final scenes is as breathtaking, memorable and broken
as Vivien Leigh’s Blanche Dubois.

In an era where every ticket sale counts, Williamston made the bold choice to take away
a third of their seats so scenic designer Jennifer Maiseloff could expand the set off the
usual stage space. It allowed her to provide a contrast between the wealthy Doyle home
with its extravagant fountain/bathtub and an exterior lacking the same sterile
protections.

Together, Maiseloff and scenic dresser/prop designer Michelle Raymond create a look
of luxury while using greys and metallics to suggest a coldness and possibly
compromised humanity of those who call the room home.

Thirst is a powerful work that accomplishes what theater does best—spark nuanced
conversations that drive change in an ever-complicated world facing choices with
irreversible outcomes.