In “4,000 Miles,” 70 years separate irascible Vera (Deborah Persoff) and her 21-year-old grandson, Leo (Curtiss Johns), who arrives on Vera’s West Village doorstep with the bicycle he rode from Minneapolis to Manhattan.
* * * ½ comedy
During the ride, Leo suffered a horrific loss that worries his family and nominal girlfriend, Bec (Alaina Beth Reel). But Leo is rudderless, now that he and his mighty steed have arrived at their destination.
Leo’s initial plans to bunk temporarily at Grandma’s place disintegrate, galvanizing testy comments from Vera as she discovers minor damage around her snug apartment. But Leo and Vera find their pace as roomies, getting high together and reminiscing about their complicated family.
Exactly how complicated begins to emerge as Leo settles in. He confesses to kissing his adopted sister when they were both high on peyote, an incident that led to therapy for the sister — and probably should have had the same result for Leo.
His disconnect between action and consequence tends to leave a litter of broken relationships in his wake. He resists Vera’s gentle (and not so gentle) efforts to confront reality and its untidy, sticky messiness.
Leo is stunned when Bec breaks up with him, but he’s appalled when Vera amuses herself by narrating his grandfather’s sexual misadventures with other women. On the other hand, Vera is shocked when she stumbles on Leo and his special new friend, Amanda (Jenna Moll Reyes), making out in the living room.
Persoff is brilliant as the last surviving member of her octogenarian club. Persoff is decades younger than Vera (or the nearly 80 Maude she owned last year in Vintage Theatre’s “Harold & Maude”), but she overrides the gap with mannerisms such as the fretful fingers and cautious totter of an elder who no longer trusts her own body.
Johns evokes the lost man-boy with empathy, feeling his way around the broken places of his life. Reyes, who was stunning in “She Kills Monsters” at the Aurora Fox, is hilarious here as the slutty chick Leo picks up. A rent-controlled apartment, she marvels; it’s like an aphrodisiac.
“4,000 Miles” ends as vaguely as it begins, with Leo and Vera exiting the apartment. It’s not exactly a show about nothing.
Instead, “4,000 Miles” captures the fragments — alternately powerful and friable — that compose the delicate mosaic of life and relationships. We get mad at the people we love. We fight. We forgive (if we know what’s good for us), and we fall back into that familiar embrace, ready for another round.
“4,000 MILES” by Amy Herzog. Directed by Len Matheo. Starring Deborah Persoff, Curtiss Johns, Alaina Beth Reel and Jenna Moll Reyes. Through March 6 at Miners Alley Playhouse, 1224 Washington Ave., Golden. 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 6 p.m. Sundays. Tickets $24 to $27 at 303-935-3044 or online at
