At the end of an arduous cross-country bike trip, a rudderless 21-year-old seeks refuge in his elderly grandmother’s West Village apartment. These two outsiders face ideological differences, but ultimately find their way together in “a beautifully rendered portrait” (The New York Times) of a cross-generational relationship.
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Production photos by Michael Brosilow.
REVIEWS
Grandparent bonding without the warm fuzziness
★★★½
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
September 23, 2013
By CHRIS JONES
Amy Herzog’s refreshingly caustic but deeply compassionate “4000 Miles” might just be the play for you. Especially in the beautiful Northlight Theatre production forged by Kimberly Senior, and starring Mary Ann Thebus and Josh Salt.
… [T]hroughout this small, honest, 100-minute drama, you never doubt for a moment that these two characters need each other desperately. You might say that Herzog is writing unsentimentally about a very sentimental subject, which is ideal, really, for the better class of softy who goes to the theater.
It’s funny. Some of us enjoy the chance for beautiful relationships across the generational divide and some of us, whether due to issues of health, geographic remove, familial dysfunction or sheer lateness of arrival into this world, do not. But no play I’ve seen has better understood what a grandparent and grandchild actually can do for one another, if they are given the chance.
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REVIEWS
‘4000 Miles’ a theatrical journey worth taking
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
September 25, 2013
By HEDY WEISS
Amy Herzog’s “4000 Miles,” now in the loveliest of productions at Northlight Theatre, is a beautifully observed play about an elderly woman who is still engaged, spirited, and fiercely trying hard to hold on to life, and her encounter with her early twentysomething grandson, a neo-hippie struggling to make sense of life, love, work and mortality …
Vera Joseph (Mary Ann Thebus, in an altogether glorious portrayal that is spot-on in terms of its emotional and physical truth), is an independent-minded octogenarian living alone in the same roomy, rent-controlled Greenwich Village apartment she has occupied for 40 years …
In this intimate but universal story — one that belongs, above all, to Thebus — director Kimberly Senior makes everything flow easily but unpredictably. She and her cast find the truth in the casual mess of a cereal bowl, the visible relief of a hug.
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REVIEWS
4000 Miles at Northlight Theatre: Theater review
A young man takes refuge in his aged grandmother’s Manhattan apartment in Amy Herzog’s delicate, truthful character study.
★★★★
TIMEOUT CHICAGO
September 23, 2013
By KRIS VIRE
You’ve likely known a Leo Joseph-Connell. And it’s likely you couldn’t stand him. As sharply illustrated in Amy Herzog’s rich, small-scale 2011 work, Leo is a very recognizable type of modern 21-year-old: a privileged-progressive rich kid, the kind who refuses the offer of a banana out of responsibility for its carbon footprint, but refuses to take responsibility for his effect on the emotions of those who love him. Leo prides himself on his anti-consumerism in not owning a cell phone, yet thinks nothing of asking his 91-year-old grandmother to spot him 50 bucks to go to a rock-climbing gym.
… Yet for all of Leo’s repugnant self-righteousness and blithe disregard for his ability to injure, Herzog doesn’t sit in judgment of his behavior. Like the playwright, Josh Salt does a remarkable job of capturing his character’s casual cruelty while still letting Leo’s barely-hidden terror and sorrow show through enough to make us want better for him …
There are no wrenching plot twists nor oversold sentimentality in Herzog’s and Senior’s delicate sketchwork, which also encompasses brief but lovely turns by Caroline Neff and Emjoy Gavino as two very different love interests for Leo. It never feels like we’re being manipulated or that the playwright is pushing buttons; even a scene that sounds on paper like an easy joke—Leo and Granny get high together—comes across as organic and earned. There are no big lessons in 4000 Miles, just honest and moving portrayals of learning and growing.
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REVIEWS
Great cast helps Northlight’s ‘4000 Miles’ go the distance
★ ★ ★
DAILY HERALD
September 26, 2013
By BARBARA VITELLO
Amy Herzog’s “4000 Miles” sneaks up on you and doesn’t let you go. A quiet, family drama about growing up, growing old and finding oneself, Herzog’s 2013 Pulitzer Prize finalist doesn’t leave a big impression. Not at first, anyway.
Just as it did for Herzog’s “Belleville,” which ran this summer at Steppenwolf Theatre, my appreciation grew for this affecting (yet never schmaltzy) drama centered around 21-year-old Leo (Josh Salt, as a most amiable hipster), and his prickly, left-leaning grandmother Vera (deftly played by Mary Ann Thebus). Their brief, bothersome and occasionally embarrassing cohabitation animates the play, which unfolds in Vera’s dated but cozy Greenwich Village apartment in the not-too-distant past.
The dialogue is refreshing and realistic. The characters are honest, imperfect and entirely relatable. But the best thing about “4000 Miles” is that it doesn’t follow the intergenerational family drama formula, where the elder shares with her troubled grandson a lifetime of wisdom that transforms him into a content, productive man. Here, a character’s revelations and confessions don’t reverberate like thunderclaps. They’re revealed quietly, almost as an afterthought, to a preoccupied listener who more often than not fails to grasp their importance.