St. Charles' Steel Beam goes the distance for touching drama '4000 Miles'
“4000 Miles” - ★ ★ ★
A 91-year-old New Yorker and her 21-year-old grandson bridge the divides of age and distance in “4000 Miles.” Amy Herzog's acclaimed 2011 Pulitzer Prize-finalist play, now making a strong debut at St. Charles' Steel Beam Theatre, impresses with its quiet and weighty scenes of connection, compassion and miscommunication.
“4000 Miles” is set in the rent-controlled Manhattan apartment of an extremely left-wing retired widow, Vera Joseph (Joann Smith). Vera's day-to-day routine is disrupted when her troubled grandson, Leo Joseph-Connell (RJ Cecott), shows up in the middle of the night looking for a place to crash.
It's an uncomfortable encounter. Vera is embarrassed about her hearing aid and forgetting to put in her dentures. Meanwhile, Leo reeks since he has nearly finished a cross-country bike journey from Seattle.
Vera is perplexed that Leo's transplanted college girlfriend, Bec (Paula Smiech), turned him away. But rather than immediately interrogating Leo, Vera takes him in.
Slowly, it's revealed that Leo is estranged from his mom and adopted sister back in St. Paul. Vera is cautious about pressing Leo about his involvement in a horrific cycling accident while he was passing through Kansas.
Herzog could have just focused on “Odd Couple”-style comic conflicts for “4000 Miles.” Instead, she mines dramatic gold from Vera and Leo as they navigate generational differences and find unexpected common ground.
Smith gets plenty of sympathy and laughs as Vera, especially when she blithely goes into “tell-it-like-it-is” mode to reveal truths about her unfaithful husbands and opinions of how her children turned out. Smith's doddering physicality is also spot-on - so much so that you worry about her backstage safety.
Though he could speak a tad louder, Cecott makes for an endearing Leo. Cecott conveys how Leo's free-spirited nature can be both fun (as seen in a drunken make-out encounter with Carolyn Plurad's excellent and entitled art student Amanda) and frustrating (especially in scenes with Smiech's embittered Bec).
Director Larry Boller and his strong ensemble work marvelously together exploring Herzog's dramatic and comic set pieces, though the pacing is sometimes lethargic with extended transitional blackouts between scenes to accommodate costume changes.
If you missed Northlight Theatre's Chicago-area premiere of “4000 Miles” back in 2013, Steel Beam Theatre's richly performed production gives you another chance to see Herzog's work. The play rewards with its clear-eyed look at elders and young people guiding each other through unpredictable journeys of adulthood.
<b>Location:</b> Steel Beam Theatre, 111 W. Main St., St. Charles, (630) 587-8521, steelbeamtheatre.com
<b>Showtimes:</b> 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday; through June 10
<b>Running time:</b> About 95 minutes with no intermission
<b>Tickets:</b> $22-$28
<b>Parking:</b> Nearby parking garage and limited street parking
<b>Rating:</b> Some profanity and drug use; suggested for older teens and up