4000 Miles goes the distance

by Jenni Morin

A road trip becomes an odyssey in Amy Herzog’s award-winning 4000 Miles as it tenderly examines the reality of dealing with loss. Now showing at the Cellar Theater through June 7, The Playhouse’s rendition of 4000 Miles raises the bar for local productions.

Cris Boneta and Sam Carter Gilliam as Leo and Vera in
4000 Miles at The Playhouse. Photo by Siggi Ragnar.

Leo arrives at his grandmother’s Manhattan apartment early in the morning after biking across the country. Having experienced a huge tragedy along the way, his family and friends are increasingly worried about his well-being. His inability to deal with what has happened strains his relationship with his girlfriend Bec. Vera, although initially surprised to have a houseguest, becomes accustomed to Leo’s presence, which allows her to release her irritating neighbor from having to check up on her. Leo spends his days rock climbing and avoiding his life, and when he attempts to have a one night stand with Amanda, it ends with him alone in the dark then finally detailing the whole bike trip incident for Vera. When Vera's neighbor passes, they share a poignant moment of mutual understanding and empathy.

As Vera and Leo slowly gain momentum, it becomes clear their paths have become intertwined for this brief moment in time. Journey and distance are constant themes, but rather than the cliched undertones of spirituality or personal awareness, Herzog allows the characters to be lost. The beauty of 4000 Miles is that it gives each character a level of respect to hold their most troubling and defining milestones close rather they splaying them out to be trampled on and judged.
This sweet and witty dramatic comedy is glimpse into the lives of a very odd couple, made up of a 21-year-old modern hippie and a 91-year-old Marxist grandmother, who find solace in silence. A delicate truthful interaction, 4000 Miles is a perfect therapy session with a spunky grandmother uncensored from imparting the wisdom of her years and experience. It’s as much about growth together as it is about personal growth and finding the strength to move past tragedy and accept life for what it’s become.

In an exceptionally impressive performance, Sam Carter Gilliam leads the cast as Vera. Without overwhelming the stage, she commands it with a quiet tenacity full of judgmental looks and a signature gait. Cris Boneta as Leo portrays the angsty grandson floundering in his loneliness. Together with Gilliam, Boneta creates touching moments and well-timed humor. Lilly Canaria’s Amanda character unfortunately gives her little to work with, coming off vapid and flighty, while Kristin Richards does a commendable job as Bec and shines in her awkward encounters with Vera.

Director Bill Gundry masters the silent moments, filling them with humor and affection. All of the technical aspects fell into place to create a very real escape into the lives of Leo and Vera. A magnificently decorated and detailed set by Ryan Deroos brought Vera’s apartment to life from the crocheted doilies to the rotary phone to the cups and saucers, along with other trifles from properties master Janis Kelly. Megan Reilly’s lighting transitioned well from night to day and defied shadows for the most part, giving each trinket and detail its own spotlight. Incidental sounds and transitional interludes tempered Pat Smith’s sound design, while Crystal Wilderson’s costumes were fitting for each character, even eccentric Amanda. Aside from tightening some transitions, the show was scrupulously well executed and engaging through to the last heartwarming moment.

The Playhouse’s 4000 Miles is a simple story made better by a talented team of technicians and actors who fill the silences with humor and compassion. The Cellar Theater provides the quintessential setting for this intimate glimpse into the converging paths of two generations with differing approaches for gaining perspective in the face of loss.


4000 Miles runs at The Playhouse Cellar Theater through June 7 with performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and on Sundays at 3 p.m. For more information and to reserve tickets, visit theplayhousesa.org.

Rumors: You know what they say about assuming

by Jenni Morin

Neil Simon's popular farce Rumors, now playing at The Sheldon Vexler Theatre through May 31, is a staple in community theatre repertoires due to its snowballing chaos and rising tensions. While examining the effect gossip has on relationships and perceptions, Rumors also brings out the inherent humor in assumptions and inane cover stories.

The play opens on the panicked Chris and Ken Gorman who have just found their friend Charlie Brock unconscious and bleeding from a gunshot wound upon arriving for a party for his tenth anniversary with his wife Myra, who is nowhere to be found. After getting ahold of Dr. Dudley to help treat Charlie, Ken realizes it's a superficial wound on his earlobe and he's in a Valium-induced sleep. Friends of the Brocks, Lenny and Claire arrive after having been in a car accident and speculate the missing hosts have to do with rumors of an affair, then Ken lets them in on the situation. As the other guests arrive, they must keep inventing excuses for the missing party hosts and absent staff. They seemingly convince the other guests, Ernie and Cookie Cusack, that everything is fine and even to cook their own dinner, until a second gunshot, rendering Ken momentarily deaf, raises further questions. Genn and Cassie Cooper arrive bickering about another rumored affair and everyone seems to get injured in some way as the first act culminates in a screaming, aching, exasperated tableau of chaotic desperation. Everyone has been filled in after dinner when the second act opens and they all decide to blame Ken. A mysterious woman calls for Glenn, making them think it's Glenn who Myra is having the affair with, causing Cassie to go ballistic. The police show up to investigate Lenny's car accident and seem satisfied with their answers until Glenn accidentally mentions the gunshots. Lenny, pretending to be Charlie, tells an impromptu story explaining the entire evening, which seems to satisfy the officers. Once they leave, Charlie offers to tell the real story of what happened.

Simon weaves a warning against gossip and assumptions into the chaos of Rumors to add a message to the otherwise mass confusion. Each of the characters has their own rumor-worthy secrets, which are revealed as accusations in many cases. Amidst the confusion and lies, Simon manages to leave evidence of not only the nature of the characters in crisis, but also of their backstories. This gives the farce a little more substance than those that seem to leave the audience constantly discovering pieces to the plot puzzle until it finally makes sense. Despite the depth of this farce, Rumors still requires a fast-paced and precise execution in order to build and maintain momentum. Simultaneously, the characters must remain frazzled while still being able to repeat the evolving volley of lies meant to explain the current predicament. The believability of the entire production rests on the ability of the actors to personify every clue given about their characters, rather than the plausibility of the situation itself.

The Vex production of Rumors has plenty of comical moments guided by director Michael Burger. Chad A. Miller's sound pairs perfectly with Ken Frasier's lights and set. Dylan Brainard even introduced a new character in his props with an extra long phone cord responsible for several humorous binds, literally. While all of Sophia Bolles' evening attire is fitting for the status of the characters, the description of Cookie's dress is not representative of the only one described in the dialogue. While the production faces inconsistencies in pacing, it isn't without its shining moments and some stand out cast members.

Scott Leibowitz leads the show as Lenny Ganz, keeping the cast on tempo and commanding the stage for his explanatory monologue. Chelsea Ortuno as Cassie Cooper and Robert Gonzalez as Glenn Cooper have great stage chemistry with one of the most engaging scenes of the show. Ben Scharff presents a steady Ernie Cusack with well-timed outbursts. Theresa Bishop's Claire Ganz is both snarky and detached while Jared Stephens as Ken Gorman brings the opposite with high-energy hysteria. Carlos Alvarado as Officer Welch holds his own as his partner officer Pudney played by Erin Polewski holds her own as the strong silent type. Cookie Cusack, played by Lisa Fritschle, seems more odd than eccentric, while Megan Van Dyke's character Chris Gorman is always on the brink of hysteria and more in need of Valium than a cigarette.

Never a dull moment, Rumors keeps audiences guessing as the characters make assumptions, spy and gossip until relieved by an official explanation. The Vex production of Rumors is a fun romp and one of the few farce plot that can be followed thanks to a few talented actors worth the ticket.


Rumors will run at The Sheldon Vexler Theatre through May 31, 2015 with performances at 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays, 8 p.m. on Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. on Sundays. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.vexler.org.

Love to hate & hate to love Chekhov

by Jenni Morin

As the most produced play this season according to American Theatre magazine, Christopher Durang's 2013 Tony winner for best play, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, is a ridiculous mélange of Chekhov's characters and themes brilliantly mashed with his unique brand of culture criticism. The Classic Theatre production, now showing through May 17, pays homage to both Durang and Chekhov in a hilarious and perfectly cast tonic.

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is set at the estate of middle aged siblings, Vanya and Sonia, who have come to accept their pointless existence, not without complaining, after spending their youth caring for their ailing aging parents. Professors and community theatre enthusiasts, their parents named all their children after Chekhov characters. Masha, their sister, is an actress who pays for the estate and comes home to disrupt their depressingly mundane lives to attend a costume party. In an attempt to desperately cling to her fame, youth and beauty, she bullies everyone, including a neighbor girl Nina,  into being the supporting cast to her Snow White costume for the party. Sonia refuses to be one of Masha's dwarfs and insists on being Maggie Smith as the evil queen, upstaging Masha's costume and boosting her confidence in possibly meeting someone at the party. Meanwhile, Cassandra the housekeeper, who has premonitions just like her Greek namesake, warns against several threats, which everyone ignores until they come true. Masha's visit has brought out the charm of Sonia as she receives an invitation for a date and the confidence of Vanya who decides to share a reading of his play, inspired by Konstantin's symbolist play in The Seagull. Spike rudely answers a text during the reading, which sets off Vanya into a tirade about how things used to be in the 50s. Masha discovers Spike is involved with her assistant and send him packing. Employing a voodoo doll, Cassandra convinces Masha not to sell the house and the three siblings end with a tableau of contentment in their house by the cherry orchard.

Durang quickly explains most of the Chekhov references throughout the play as they come up, making it just as humorous for those unfamiliar with the Russian master. Beyond the obvious similarities in character names and preoccupations, themes of selling the family estate and Konstantin's play within a play, Durang, like Chekhov, introduces a wide range of well developed characters. This makes it easy to relate to the melodramatic tantrums and empathetically and emphatically experience the ups and downs of their tumultuous relationships. Durang may in fact be tapping into some of the humor Chekhov intended, which never seems to come across through the dark clouds hanging over his subtext-laden works. However, some of the deeper Chekhovian themes are embodied by Vanya then poured out in his monologue, which feels like a reflection of personal frustrations of the playwright. From lusting after an unattainable young mate to the younger generation's materialism to environmental sustainability, Durang offers a rich script that is as meta theatrical as it is entertaining, yet exceedingly difficult to execute well.

The Classic Theatre production of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is exceptionally well executed. Under the skillful direction of Diane Malone, each technical element highlighted, without overpowering, an incredibly talented ensemble. Both lighting by Steven Starr and sound by Rick Malone were respectfully well balanced, unobtrusive and restrained, pairing nicely with Karen Arredondo's functional set. While Kitty Williams' costumes, especially Sonia's party outfit, provided their own subtext, a special mention must go to Jan O'Neill for smashable mugs and the best teapot.

From Anna Gangai's (Sonia) impeccable comedic timing to Emily Spicer's (Masha) icy facial expressions, this cast flawlessly delivered every bipolar moment. Gangai's Sonia is undeniably endearing as the audience is on the edge of their seats during the entire one-sided phone conversation with a potential suitor. John O'Neill (Vanya) and Gangai are perfect compliments, marching to the sounds of their own piccolo, as he so gently steers his adopted sister back to a sunny disposition. O'Neill's lengthy monologue about the past is animated and charged with frustrations of society's audacious improvements that have left the simplicity and communal experience of the past behind. Danielle King as Cassandra energizes the Russian melancholy with a flourish of comedy uniquely her own. Spicer gives Masha an extra touch of humanity and hilarity in her uncomfortable interactions with Nina and suggestive moments with Spike. John Stillwaggon performs an entertaining audition scene, but like McKenna Liesman (Nina) has been given little to work with from Durang.

Durang's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is the answer to updating Chekhov and bringing his works to a new audience, while simultaneously allowing Chekhov fans to laugh at the undeniably depressing works. The production of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at The Classic Theatre is rousing and entertaining, offering an accessible and approachable script for all.



Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike will run at the Classic Theatre through May 17, 2015 with performances at 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. on Sunday. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit classictheatre.org.