Jackie Collison as Vera Joseph and Thomas Young as Leo Connell will appear in the Pulitzer-finalist family drama 4,000 Miles, the latest offering at the newly branded Hendersonville Community Theatre.
In our first issue of the year, Bold Life covered the transformation of cultural mainstay Hendersonville Little Theatre into Hendersonville Community Theatre — and the new venue is gaining serious momentum as it segues into a hot summer season. Opening this week is 4000 Miles, a play by Amy Herzog that ran Off Broadway in 2011 and ’12, winning a “Best Play” Obie Award and being shortlisted for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
An aimless, early-20-something man ends up at his 91-year-old grandmother’s apartment in Greenwich Village, a desperate stop after his disastrous cross-country bike tour. Leo and Vera argue about Marxism, drug use, and other life- and mind-altering detours that have affected their lives, finding a circuitous path around their mutual irritation to arrive at eventual warmth and acceptance.
When the play debuted, Sydney Morning Herald reporter John Shand penned this memorable review: “If your heart is sick or just needs warming, go and see this play. If you are a Baby Boomer who doesn’t understand your grandchildren or are from Gen Y and, like, really weirded out by your grandparents, go and see this play. If you simply love theatre, go and see this play.”
The local production stars Jackie Collison and Thomas Young in the lead roles. Director is Jim Walker, who noted to Bold Life at the beginning of the year that the theater is moving away from safe bets into more challenging work: “In order to grow, you have to change. In order to change, you have to do some things that are out-of-the-box,” he said in January. “I think there’s a hunger for certain kinds of things to happen in a theater.”
4,000 Miles runs at the HCT Event Center on June 3, 4, 10 and 11 at 7:30pm and on June 5 and 12 at 2pm. Ticket prices are $16. For more information, call 828-692-1082 or see hendersonvilletheatre.org
