Playwright Amy
Herzog has been lauded for her poignant family dramas: 4000 MILES was a
Pulitzer finalist in 2012. In Gloucester Stage’s gentle production of the “cross
country” play (running through August 17th), a sensitive young man
has biked all the way from Washington state and found refuge from the slings
and arrows of truly outrageous fortune in his grandmother’s New York City
apartment. The cantankerous 91 year old is delighted to have his company. In
the course of the play the two form an indelible bond.
The slowly
meandering play gradually unfolds its secrets to reveal what drove the young
man from home (although the information is at best scant) and what keeps him
from returning. The back story lurks just out of reach, under the surface of
the play as if Herzog is loath to go into detail. In the most touching scene of
the play, the grandson finally recounts what really happened on the road but
Herzog undercuts this lovely moment with a joke. (It’s a joke we’re all
familiar with from countless scenes of cinematic confessions when the confessor
discovers that the other person was asleep the whole time.) Director Eric C.
Engel creates such an intimate, delicate connection between the two, that it’s
a shame to throw it away for a laugh.
Nancy E. Carroll
gives a brilliant physical portrayal etched in arthritic fingers, wobbly knees
and bent spine but it’s her exquisite comic timing which carries the play,
especially when the two celebrate the autumnal equinox with a little buzz. Thomas
Rash is just vulnerable enough for us to plainly see he’s at odds with the
world and himself. Herzog brings in two romantic possibilities for the
grandson, one just ending (Sarah Oakes Muirhead) and one going nowhere (Samantha
Ma) but it’s the affection we witness when he pats his grandma’s head, or she
pats his, that’s the love story we care about in 4000 MILES.
