By Amanda Knox

The modern, character-driven 4000 Miles by the young playwright Amy Herzog is artistic director Mathew Wright’s latest contribution to the ArtsWest stage. It stands out as a change in direction from the musicals of 2014's autumn and winter in terms of genre, but keeps in line with the themes of connection, communication, and the weight of mortality featured in Dogfight and Judy’s Scary Little Christmas.

In this particular story, Wright sets a focused lens upon the importance of metaphor and experience that Herzog establishes in the text. Through the counterparts of the aged Vera, played by Susan Corzatte, and the youthful Leo, played by Adam Standley, the audience is introduced to a counter-balanced perspective of such epic themes as death, grief, and their weight upon a person’s psyche. Grounded in the plausible and realistic situation of a bike trip and convalescence in a family setting, death is both a sudden tragedy and a sad routine, the weight of years is set against the weight of feathers, and the convention of moving on as opposed to holding on is called into question.

Wright put together a strong cast, especially Corzatte and Sara Porkalob as Amanda. Their vocal intonations and facial expressions are both subtle and distinct, their gestures both natural and highly characteristic. They give off a sense of fully embodying the history of their characters up until the moment of the present on the stage, and their charismatic enjoyment of their comedic moments in contagious.

While you’d have to be lucky to live in an apartment in New York’s West Village with as much floor space as the ArtsWest stage, the design of the set is well-researched and consistent, from the oriental rug, to the leather-bound books and the paisley pillows, to the exposed brickwork around the windows. As usual, the ArtsWest stage comes across as a well-played character all its own, with subtle details that pull the
setting together and allow the actors to interact more realistically with the space. So it is when Vera turns her back on Leo to riffle through a drawer in search of her missing checkbook; or when Amanda leans over conspiratorially to whisper into the Buddha statue’s ear; or when Becca tenderly touches her fingertips to the radiator just before breaking some bad news to Leo.

The emotional gravity of the play hinges around center stage, where Leo and Vera share three beautifully-rendered, intimate moments that echo each other. Wide-eyed, marijuana-laced couch confessions give way t dark, narrative confession that elicit the audience’s imagination and imitate the feeling of suffocation, which gives way to the writing a of eulogy, where truth-telling is an ultimate expression of love because it means caring enough to know.

The audience comes away from the production with a sense of having had the privilege to glimpse a real unfolding of tension in the lives of the characters. Just as the characters come to experience ease and closeness, so do we.

ArtsWest’s production of 4000 Miles runs from January 22nd through February 15th, Wednesdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets cost $15-$34.50 and may be purchased at the box office or online http://www.artswest.org/theatre-plays/4000-miles/. ArtsWest theatre is located at 4711 California Ave SW.