From the moment the audience is plunged into darkness with nothing but a soundscape evoking the cultural ritual of the cross-continent road trip for sensory reference, we know we’re in for a confidently thoughtful production. Performed originally Off-Broadway in 2011 (for which it won an Obie Award), playwright Amy Herzog’s 4000 Miles was previously staged in Australia at ATYP Under The Wharf in 2013 to great acclaim. This new production kicks off Sydney Theatre Company’s 2025 season in fine style.
Leo (Shiv Palekar) has arrived in New York after riding the titular 4000 miles across America. His girlfriend Bec (Ariadne Sgouros) won’t take him in, so he seeks refuge at his grandmother Vera’s (Nancye Hayes) apartment, bringing unwashed clothes, a bike and a mountain of issues. He intends to stay for only a few nights before heading back.
Vera is a card-carrying communist; a pragmatist with sharp observations and a faith in community. She alternates daily irascible phone calls with a neighbour, Ginny, to ensure each other is still alive. Vera and Leo, though, are both in a holding pattern. At 91, Vera is facing inevitable cognitive and physical decline, while Leo is dealing with relationship turmoil and tragedy at the still-formative age of 21. Two generations separated by 70 years must navigate their way through their own relationship before they can find some way to reclaim their lives.
Director Kenneth Moraleda has a firm grasp of the play’s nuances, and clear stage direction ensures that moments of intimacy never feel forced. He draws excellent performances from all his actors, with the two leads establishing a real chemistry.
It’s wonderful to see Hayes back on stage and she provides a memorable performance, tempering Vera’s caustic commentary with a warm, softly-spoken delivery. Vera is no shrinking violet, nor prude, and Hayes gives us a woman who in simply being honest spares no-one, not even herself.
Leo is a bundle of emotional problems and has relationship issues with everyone, living and dead. Despite being a decade older than his character, Palekar manifests all of Leo’s awkward insecurity, neediness and repressed trauma with skill and sensitivity. He makes Leo’s journey from boy to man believable and heartfelt.
Ariadne Sgouros captures well Bec’s confusion that festers at the heart of her relationship with Leo. She clearly articulates the push-pull of knowing what is inherently best for herself while not wanting to completely let go.
As Amanda, Shirong Wu shows nice comedic ability as the oddly-written capitalist party girl. Wu manages a deft balance between comedy and seriousness, most noticeably in her horror at discovering Vera is a communist.
Designer Jeremy Allen has conjured a terrifically detailed set that imagines a New York apartment barely changed since the late sixties, and which actually looks lived in. Spaces are skilfully differentiated enabling the action to flow seamlessly.
Kelsey Lee’s lighting design is particularly good. Passages of time are marked by a back-stage autumnal glow that also adds a touch of melancholy. And memorably affecting is Leo’s recount of Micah’s death, the scene bathed in an intimate half-light of shadows.
Jessica Dunn’s sound design complements the lighting’s clever scene-setting. Introducing external sounds of the city to the small apartment assists in establishing the drama in a world that exists beyond four walls. A minor quibble – some insistently earnest music late in the piece is perhaps a bit heavy-handed.
As written, the play has a weak ending, so Moraleda’s decision here to let the action linger with a gentle interaction between Vera and Leo, is astute. Lit in deep shadow, they primp each other before leaving for Ginny’s funeral, reinforcing their love and new-found acceptance. Though the overlaying song threatens to indulge the kind of sentimentality that the production otherwise eschews, there remains a lightness of touch here that demonstrates a real feel for Herzog’s work.
If you are weighed down by the world’s present state of affairs, this delightful play is 90-odd minutes of warmth and tenderness, laced with a bit of bite, that will give you both respite and hope.
Sydney Theatre Company’s 4000 Miles runs until 23 March at the Wharf 1 Theatre, Wharf 4/5 Walsh Bay, Sydney.
Tickets: https://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/whats-on/productions/2025/4000-miles
Website: https://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/sydneytheatreco/
Photo credits: Daniel Boud
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