It’s hard to imagine a notable New York City theatre company kicking off its 2025 season with a play set in Sydney, performed by an American cast putting on Australian accents.
Somehow, the reverse is not only easy to imagine, it’s how the Sydney Theatre Company (STC) has chosen to launch its 2025 offerings. STC has commenced the year with a play imbued with the spirit of Manhattan: 4000 Miles by Amy Herzog.
Of course, it would be absurd for local theatre companies to shun overseas works altogether. Theatre is universal and there’s a wealth of stories to tell from all over the world. But call it cultural cringe or just playing it safe, there’s something predictable about STC putting a play like 4000 Miles in pole position.
To be fair, the play, which debuted Off-Broadway in 2011, is a warm and engaging work. The dramatic comedy was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and received good notices when it was staged in Sydney in 2013, by the Australian Theatre for Young People. In short, it’s a sure bet.
Directed here by Kenneth Moraleda, it begins with 21-year-old Leo (played by Shiv Palekar) turning up at 3am at the home of his 91-year-old grandmother, Vera (Nancye Hayes).
Acerbic but likeable Vera has lived alone in her Manhattan apartment since the death of her husband Joe 10 years ago.
Leo has just cycled from coast-to-coast with his best mate Micah, who was killed in a traffic accident during the trip. His girlfriend has broken up with him and he’s at a low ebb. Although reluctant to ask for help, it’s clear he needs a place to stay and regroup – which Vera offers without hesitation.
The premise is the perfect set-up for an amusing intergenerational comedy/drama. Vera and Leo are both politically liberal; between that and their family ties, they have ample common ground. But the huge generation gap leads to various misunderstandings, which are mined for comedy as well as insights into life at opposite ends of the age spectrum.
Theatre veteran Hayes is fantastic as the 91-year-old widow. Her portrayal is pithy and entertaining; she’s adept at generating audience mirth through intonation, pace and the slightest of facial expressions. Her character’s unbridled honestly, delivered with just the right balance of cantankerous spikiness and grandmotherly benevolence, makes the play.
Palekar also does a fine job. His Leo is likeable and earnest, and he’s a great counterbalance to Hayes. He successfully portrays the emotional fragility and softness hiding behind the character’s muscular frame. However, through no fault of his own, he is clearly older than 21.
The character of Bec (Ariadne Sgouros), Leo’s ex-girlfriend, is surplus to requirements. Her (mainly brief) appearances do little to advance the narrative and her moments in the spotlight have an air of diversion from the main subject: the intergenerational friendship between grandmother and grandson. The play could easily work without this character, although Sgouros gives a credible performance.
The other character, Amanda (Shirong Wu) is hilarious and adds a zany energy to the play. Leo brings her home to Vera’s one night, after meeting her in a bar. Although she has only one scene, Wu manages to wrestle the spotlight away for its duration, with her portrayal of a kooky, heavily inebriated would-be hook-up.
The characters aside, Jeremy Allen’s set is also integral to this production. Furnished in a suitably ’old lady’ retro style, and filled with books, furniture and ornaments, his recreation of the Manhattan apartment is impressive. It’s intricately detailed, down to the street tree outside one window (the leaves of which occasionally move in the wind) and a wall-mounted air-conditioner outside another.
Kelsey Lee’s lighting is thoughtful and clever; for example, the tree outside is never in darkness. By day, it’s illuminated by sunlight; by night, streetlights.
There’s one issue, though. During her brief whirlwind visit, Amanda is stunned by the apartment’s incredible view. Anyone who’s been to Manhattan will know the city is a forest of skyscrapers. The tree indicates said apartment is on or near the ground floor. It defies belief that a flat in Manhattan has an expansive view if it’s not located high up in an apartment tower.
That aside, the set adds a great deal to the play, as does the music, with Jessica Dunn’s American jazz score perfectly complementing the mise-en-scène.
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4000 Miles is not the most compelling play currently gracing Sydney stages. But it’s warm-hearted, occasionally very funny and a good opportunity for audiences to see up close and personal the great Nancye Hayes – who, for good reason, has been a leading light of Australian theatre since the 1960s.
4000 Miles by Amy Herzog
Wharf 1 Theatre, Sydney Theatre Company
Director: Kenneth Moraleda
Designer: Jeremy Allen
Lighting designer: Kelsey Lee
Composer and sound designer: Jessica Dunn
Associate designer: Emma White
Intimacy coordinator: Chloë Dallimore
Voice and text coach: Charmian Gradwell
Cast: Nancye Hayes, Shiv Palekar, Ariadne Sgouros, Shirong Wu
Understudy for Nancye Hayes: Valerie Bader
Tickets: $40-$125
4000 Miles will be performed until 23 March 2025.
