4000 Miles is middle-of-the-road commercial theatre

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      By Amy Herzog. Directed by Roy Surette. An Arts Club production, presented in association with Centaur Theatre. At the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage on Wednesday, September 7. Continues until October 12

      I suppose that you could say it’s well done for what it is, but what it is is so disappointing. 4000 Miles is dully middle-of-the-road commercial American theatre.

      The setup is decent. Twenty-one-year-old Leo arrives at his 91-year-old grandmother’s apartment in Manhattan. Leo is a neo-hippie and Vera is a long-time Communist and peace activist. So they have idealism in common, but as they negotiate their visit, Leo, who’s entering adulthood, seems hobbled by dark secrets, and, nearing the end of her life, Vera is haunted by dementia.

      But the setup doesn’t deliver. I’d insert a spoiler alert here, but there’s nothing to spoil. Leo has cycled all the way from Seattle and we soon find out that his companion, Micah, died on the trip. Since then, Leo has had no communication with any of his friends or family. So we wait for the big revelation about the nature of Micah’s death. But when it comes, the “revelation” provides no substantial new information; there’s nothing complicated or cathartic about it. In other words, there’s a large, empty space where the play’s fulcrum should be.

      This kind of theatre likes to look risky, but takes no real risks. Leo has sexual feelings for his adopted older sister but we never meet Lily; we only hear her on a Skype chat—and Skype is as close to danger as Amy Herzog’s script is willing to get. Herzog does offer a scene in which Leo tries to have sex with Amanda, a Chinese-American woman who reminds him of Lily. But that scene is played almost entirely for broad laughs that are based in the easy device of Amanda’s drunkenness.

      In director Roy Surette’s production, Nicola Cavendish plays Vera. More restraint might reveal more of the character’s intellectual dignity, and Vera’s New York accent only lasts a few minutes, but Cavendish offers her patented charm and humour, and she aces Vera’s furious, terrified flashes of paranoia. As Leo, Nathan Barrett survives some ridiculously naive dialogue and spins credible angst out of the underwritten subject of incest. Agnes Tong does exactly what’s she’s called upon to do as Amanda: she delivers a physically skilled, precisely timed comic performance. But I don’t know what Ella Simon is doing as Leo’s sometime girlfriend, Bec: the writing hints at depths of feeling, but Simon doesn’t make it comprehensible.

      4000 Miles has enjoyed huge success: it was the most produced script in North America last year; it won the 2012 Obie Award for best new American play, and it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. But it’s depressing when caution masquerades as daring and dullness is celebrated as subtlety.

      Comments

      2 Comments

      Hazlit

      Sep 21, 2014 at 8:02pm

      "But it’s depressing when caution masquerades as daring and dullness is celebrated as subtlety."

      Ahh Colin, you've warmed the cockles of my heart with this one....

      "Middle-of-the-road commercial theatre"...

      Sep 22, 2014 at 11:06am

      ...describes pretty much everything the Arts Club produces. I didn't see this show, but I did see their slap-dash version of Spamalot and the extremely boring Other Desert Cities, among others. I miss the Playhouse!