Review: 4000 Miles – precisely the reason Chichester’s Minerva Theatre is there​​​​​​​

Richard Eyre’s production of Amy Herzog’s 4000 Miles is precisely the reason the Minerva is there – the kind of play you know virtually nothing about beforehand but which turns out to be an absolute gem, warm, wise and rather wonderful. Not a lot happens, but it doesn’t need to. There is poignancy and profundity on a terrific opening night in this year’s Minerva programme.

It helps, of course, that the piece is so beautifully acted – but also that it is so beautifully designed. Peter McKintosh’s set is tremendous, so rich and detailed. With a huge back wall of higgledy-piggledy books and piles of vinyl on the floor, you walk straight into a living, breathing New York apartment, instantly somewhere you feel you want to be. It draws you in immediately, priming you perfectly for the gentle interplay of the characters that soon inhabit it, primarily 91-year-old Vera, living independently despite the challenges of her advancing years, and her 21-year-old grandson Leo who arrives without warning at the end of the 4,000 miles of the title.

On her first return to Chichester in more than 30 years, Eileen Atkins, who will turn 89 not long after the run ends, gives a remarkable performance as the grandmother, but she is matched every step of the way by Sebastian Croft, more than pensionable age her junior, as her grandson. It is the connection that the two characters find between them which makes this piece so special, but it is there because the actors have it.