4,000 Miles @ Artists Rep

I must confess that I approached "4000 Miles" with trepidation. I had just recently seen another Amy Herzog play, "Belleville" at Third Rail Rep and I was angered by the contemptuously unanswered questions at the end. While I did have some minor issues with Herzog's script this time, (the play is littered with fragments of dialogue that scream, "this piece of information will become important later" with little to no pay-off in the end), but that's easy to overlook. What makes "4000 Miles" unmissable is Vanna O''Brien's performance as grandmother Vera Joseph, a role she also played in Portland Playhouse's production of "After the Revolution," which I now regret I missed. I don't think that seeing that show would have filled in many of the blanks, because I have vague memories of reading "Revolution" on behalf of Portland Center Stage, and that play focused on the daughter of the family, I don't even recall a son, but this is still good advice: Do not repeat my mistake, see this one while you can.