Review: 4000 Miles
4000 Miles, produced by Montgomery Theater, reviewed by Wendy Rosenfield, written by Amy Herzog, directed by Tom Quinn, featuring Eric Wunsch, Molly Stoller, Stephanie Walters, Cynthia Raff.
By Wendy Rosenfield
for the Inquirer
It's one thing to show up at your grandmother's apartment unexpectedly; it's quite another to do so at 3 a.m. after an extended period off the grid, filthy, penniless, and bereft. Montgomery Theater's take on Amy Herzog's 4000 Miles - the second production this season, after Philadelphia Theatre Company's - removes granny Vera's teeth and gives them to grandson Leo (Eric Wunsch), an Into the Wild-style idealist reeling from his ill-fated cross-country bicycle trip.
Together, in Vera's book-lined, rent-controlled apartment, the two warily bond over love, loss, and alienation. Vera (Cynthia Raff), a widow and former lefty activist and intellectual, spends her days sliding ever further into irrelevance, grasping for words and arguing with a neighbor down the hall; they have agreed to check on each other by phone every day, just in case. Leo is rudderless, without friends and estranged from his girlfriend Bec (Molly Stoller), but his sudden presence in Vera's life allows them to recognize their similarities in the generation-skipping way grandparents and their offspring's beloved offspring often do.
Herzog's script feels painful in all the right ways - the kids' entitlement and arrogance clash hard against Vera's humility, and it's tough to watch them treat her as if she is merely uncomfortable furniture taking up space in her own living room. But director Tom Quinn picks favorites here, and Wunsch is too bombastic, his temper too hot, draining audience sympathy for his defeats, while Raff, classic and classy with a bob and cardigan, seems too prim and reserved for an old Greenwich Village Castro-loving '60s commie.
Quinn also drives Stephanie Walters' Amanda - a party girl Leo brings home, hoping to soothe his loneliness - over the comedic line into caricature, a real shame, since she's written too smart for such treatment, and Walters' performance hints that she can handle nuance. Stoller's Bec, however, gets it all right: the youthful condescension and tense, unsteady confidence, the fear of moving forward.
The beauty of Herzog's play is that all this melodrama occurs on Vera's turf, forcing an intergenerational connection that deepens despite - or maybe even because of - Leo's and Vera's tacit awareness of its fleeting nature. This production doesn't give Herzog's work all the credit it deserves, but it offers enough to highlight the many reasons this drama has racked up its own considerable mileage, with successful visits (and major awards) in regional theaters around the country.
4000 Miles Through Feb. 23 at Montgomery Theater, 124 N. Main St., Souderton. Tickets: $24-$32. Information: 215-723-9984 or www.MontgomeryTheater.org