Praise for 4000 Miles
“Herzog unravels the details slowly, with uncommon narrative skill . . . Everything about 4000 Miles seems fresh, particularized, plausible . . . The family drama that really sticks with you. Easily the best play of the season.”
—Richard Zoglin, Time
“Herzog’s wonderful play about growing up and finding home has only ripened over time. 4000 Miles is one of the best, bravest plays of the season. See it no matter how far you must travel.”
—David Cote, Time Out New York
“Plays as truthful and touching and fine as Amy Herzog’s 4000 Miles come along once or maybe twice a season, if we’re lucky . . . A beautifully rendered portrait of the relationship between an old-style lefty grandmother and her new-style lefty grandson . . . This is the rare theatrical production that achieves perfection on its own terms.”
—Charles Isherwood, New York Times
“Amy Herzog is an intelligent, delicately articulate writer with a piquant, arresting subject . . . Encounters of the kind Herzog graphs, compassionately, among left-thinking people, end irresolutely, or dissipate into nothing, giving her play the unresolved, undramatic quality of a set of short stories. Like the landed gentry who populate Chekhov’s plays, Herzog’s people are conscious of a large absence in their lives, but not wholly able to define it . . . She has a naturalistic delicacy of detail.”
—Michael Feingold, Village Voice
“The best new play by a young writer . . . Part of its excellence arises from the seemingly paradoxical fact that Ms. Herzog has had the good sense not to make 4000 Miles a political drama . . . It is, instead, a finely wrought, closely observed character study, funny and serious in just the right proportions.”
—Terry Teachout, Wall Street Journal
Praise for After the Revolution
“As its fiery title implies, After the Revolution has more on its mind than recycling familiar grievances for a couple hours of entertainment . . . A smart, engrossing play.”
—Charles Isherwood, New York Times
“Amy Herzog’s smart, finely written After the Revolution is a shrewd, ironic meditation on what we do with history, how we appropriate it for our own psychological needs. Among the play’s many pleasures—a firm grasp of historical paradox, sharp dialogue—the most satisfying is the way the characters struggle through their differences to listen to one another. The ability to listen is, perhaps, the definition of love.”
—John Lahr, New Yorker
“After the Revolution is a smart, funny and provocative play. Herzog deftly avoids simple-minded polemics in favor of richly detailed people who are as ready to examine their relationships as they are their consciences . . . Written with an extraordinary balance of insight, humor and surprise, it’s totally engaging.”
—Frank Rizzo, Variety
“The intelligent, warm After the Revolution is sharp, funny and emotionally wise. This cantankerous, political family is one you’ll want to spend time with—indeed, it’s one many New Yorkers will feel like they already have.”
—Jesse Oxfeld, New York Observer
“Amy Herzog’s After the Revolution sounds, from both its title and plot synopsis, like a political drama. But while politics are most definitely involved, at its heart it’s a family story of generational conflict. And as delivered, it’s a damn good one.”
—Erik Haagensen, Backstage
BOOKS BY AMY HERZOG
PUBLISHED BY TCG
4000 Miles and After the Revolution
Belleville (forthcoming)
The Great God Pan (forthcoming)
4000 Miles
After the Revolution
TWO PLAYS
Amy Herzog
THEATRE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP NEW YORK 2013
4000 Miles and After the Revolution are copyright © 2013 by Amy Herzog
4000 Miles and After the Revolution are published by Theatre Communications Group, Inc., 520 8th Avenue, 24th Floor, New York, NY 10018-4156
All Rights Reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in newspaper, magazine, radio or television reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that this material, being fully protected under the Copyright Laws of the United States of America and all other countries of the Berne and Universal Copyright Conventions, is subject to a royalty. All rights, including but not limited to, professional, amateur, recording, motion picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio and television broadcasting, and the rights of translation into foreign languages are expressly reserved. Particular emphasis is placed on the question of readings and all uses of this book by educational institutions, permission for which must be secured from the author’s representative: John Buzzetti, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, 1325 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019, (212) 903-1166.
The publication of 4000 Miles and After the Revolution, by Amy Herzog, through TCG’s Book Program, is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
TCG books are exclusively distributed to the book trade by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Herzog, Amy.
[Plays. Selections]
4000 miles and After the revolution : two plays / Amy Herzog. —First edition.
pages cm
eISBN 978-1-55936-716-5
1. Families—Drama. 2. Intergenerational relations—Drama.
3. Domestic drama, American. I. Herzog, Amy. 4000 miles. II. Herzog, Amy. After the revolution. III. Title. IV. Title: After the revolution.
PS3608.E79A6 2013
812’.6—dc23 2013002065
Book design and composition by Lisa Govan
Cover design by Carol Devine Carson
First Edition, May 2013
Contents
4000 Miles
For J. J. J.
PRODUCTION HISTORY
After the Revolution was commissioned by and received its world premiere at the Williamstown Theatre Festival (Nicholas Martin, Artistic Director; Joe Finnegan, General Manager) in Williamstown, Massachusetts,