A love story and a murder mystery, LOVE IN A THIRSTY LAND uses materials from an actual case, the first trial of a Jew for murder in the New World, 1875. The circumstances - a very religious young married man, alone in America, is accused of killing the young woman with whom it's been rumored he has been having an affair. Flesh vs spirit, old world ways and the new drive the four character two-act play. "What becomes of the old ways in the New World? That question is posed by Alan Glass in his absorbing, passionate new play, LOVE IN A THIRSTY LAND. Inspired by an 1875 murder case in Brooklyn, LOVE IN A THIRSTY LAND uses an adulterous love affair between immigrant Jews to address substantial and enduring issues like the future of Judaism in America, the attractions of assimilation and the temptations that pit inflamed flesh against a cold marriage. No play can be expected to do more than cast fresh and arresting light on problems like these, which have long defied easy solution. Yet in the end, with its innate intelligence and intensity, its vivid, sympathetic principals, its powerful love story, its air of mystery and its skillful evocation of a bygone era, LOVE IN A THIRSTY LAND manages to maintain its grip on philosophy and religion while telling its wrenching tale of doomed young love ..." -Lawrence Van Gelder, The New York Times