Review: Nancye Hayes Returns To The Sydney Theatre Company Stage in 4000 MILES

Amy Herzog’s Pulitzer Prize nominated 4000 MILES shares a heartwarming and humorous tale of generations coming together.  Directed by Kenneth Moraleda, this is an entertaining insight into the support and comfort that can come from unexpected relationships.

The premise of 4000 MILES is that the 21 year old Leo (Shiv Palekar) has just travelled across America from Seattle to New York on a bicycle, completing a journey he originally started with his Best Friend Micah but Micah never got to finish the trip.  He finds himself, dirty and tired, at his grandmother Vera’s (Nancye Hayes) apartment at 3am after he received a chilly reception from his girlfriend Bec (Ariadne Sgouros).  The 91 year old Vera is surprised to see him but is willing to take him in for what he initially thinks will be a few days but it turns out that the two new flatmates find they can support each other as they deal with their own personal grief and challenges.

Designer Jeremy Allen has created a detailed Greenwich Village pre-war apartment, filled with Vera’s late husband’s books and the accoutrements of a long and interesting life as left-wing political activists.  The furniture reinforces that Vera has found no need to follow current trends with now retro furniture, from the telephone table, leather pouffe, Mid-Century Modern lounge suite and bar cabinet.   The costuming captures the essence of each character while giving better insight into them, like the fact that, while 91, Vera remains quite contemporary in her clothes indicating a still active and engaged woman with the only attire that really marks her generation is the cotton nightgown.  Leo is presented as an average 21 year old, bearing clothes all suited to the long bicycle journey but not being so outrageously hippy to have him stand out too much, particularly when compared to Bec’s adventure sandals with socks and shabby knit sweater or one-night-stand Amanda’s (Shirong Wu) anime-teen get up. 

There is something special about grown up grandchildren re-connecting with their grandparents as they form a different bond than that of a child and adult.  Hayes and Palekar ensure this evolution is evident as the seemingly unlikely flatmates share their own wisdom of both age and youth to support each other in a way that the family member that connects them, Leo’s mother and Vera’s stepdaughter, the unseen Jane, cannot.  Having known similar grown up relationships between grandchild and grandparent, this work has a strong degree of relatability and it is played out with an awareness of the differences between the two and the metaphorical distance that must be bridged to form a happy harmony between the generations. 

It is a treat to watch Hayes express the depth of a woman that is still very much aware of the world around her, particularly remaining interested and vocal about the politics of the world, but increasingly betrayed by her own body and mind in the way that she struggles to find the words to say what she is thinking and increasingly forgets things.  She expresses the familiar reaction that those that feel they are losing their independence and control often express as anger and frustration.  Hayes makes it clear that Vera was always a strong-minded woman which, paired with her late husband, Leo’s grandfather Joe, have led Leo, who holds similar values, to seek out her support rather than his mother’s who never really understood Vera and Joe’s beliefs. 

Palekar presents Leo with the requisite complexity that at face value may seem like a self absorbed young man but is holding in trauma because he hasn’t found the right support till he spends time with Vera.  He hoped that his girlfriend Bec would understand but she seems too self absorbed in her own issues to be aware of his grief and guilt and while she doesn’t really ‘grow’ in self-awareness, Leo does and Palekar presents this with beautifully poignant scenes with Hayes. 

While the inclusion of Bec adds a greater depth of understanding of the developing relationship between Vera and Leo, the inclusion of Amanda feels a little forced and overplayed.  Shirong Wu presents the intoxicated younger woman that Leo has picked up for a one-night-stand as a stereotype of an Asian teen with the juvenile aesthetic and a self-absorbed immaturity.  Presenting as a contrast to Bec and a reason for a comic moment when Vera interrupts the hormone fuelled interlude Amanda helps highlight the challenge of the unusual living arrangements while also reinforcing that Vera is not as judgemental as one may expect.

4000 MILES is an easy evening of entertainment as the audience is invited to observe a special relationship between grandparent and grandchild.  This work reinforces that that older people can still be interesting and interested and are an important part of family and community and that their effect on people should not be underestimated.  It reminds us that to not discount the support the older generation can be for the younger generations and that the influence that both can have on each other can be significant and positive.

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