In this play, there really are no apparent plot points or stand out Major Dramatic Questions, but rather an array of scenes between Leo and some of the important females in his life, being his grandmother, his sister, his ex-girlfriend, and one of his dates. Despite there being no obvious pattern to the scenes, one event that is repeatedly brought up in conversations is Leo’s departure from his family and friends. Keeping this generic idea of departure in mind, it is also notable that Leo’s date abruptly leaves, his Skype call with his sister is cut short, his relationship with his girlfriend is concluded with a “Fuck you,” his best friend is suddenly killed in a freak chicken truck accident, and the play ends with Leo going to Ginny’s funeral, adding yet another sudden death to his life. Considering all of the “departures” that are included in almost every scene, a major motif present in 4000 Miles is the concept of endings.
In the opening scene, Vera begins to mention Leo’s mother, saying “She’s been…” to which Leo instantly begins packing while saying “It was awesome to see you,” exhibiting that Leo’s first instinct when approached with an uncomfortable subject is to completely avoid the topic. In a later scene, Bec does almost exactly the same thing, after Leo approaches her with a kiss. She cuts him off and pushes him away, saying “I have to go,” to which Leo boldly points out that Bec has “turned [her] back on everything…we used to believe in.” In another scene, Leo avoids answering Lily’s plea for him to “come home” by awkwardly responding with “Yeah, I’m gonna hang up now, sorry.” Throughout Leo’s life, relationships, conversations, and even lives are abruptly ended, and while some of these endings are inevitable and up to chance, others are intentionally made so by Leo’s personal interference, or lack of.
In my post, I said that the pattern I found was of death. Yours on endings is pretty much the same. I too realized that all the people or things he either had to depart from or end or left him. I was also thinking about why the story is called 4000 miles (why not 3000, 5000, 6000...?), besides the fact that he rode his bike a long way to get to where he is going. I thought about the main people in his life that took him to the state he is in by the end of the play - his sister, best friend, (ex) girlfriend, and Ginny. That's 4 people that all represented some kind of ending to him. It may be corny or wrong but each person, in my mind stands for a mile stone he had to cross, hence the 4 in 4000 miles.
ReplyDelete