Sergio Di Zio and Megan Follows in ‘Four Minutes Twelve Seconds’ Photo by Dahlia Katz
“Are you okay?”
When a distraught mother, Di (Megan Follows), asks this very simple question, Cara (Jadyn Nasato) is completely taken aback. Nobody has thought to ask, though her ordeal has been at the centre of so much angst and violence. It is the first time we see her guard drop and Nasato’s trembling reaction is one of the most moving moments in the Studio 180 Theatre production of James Fritz’s Four Minutes Twelve Seconds.
Before we ever get to meet Cara, their son Jack’s former girlfriend, our curiosity is piqued as questions about her motivations and very nature are aired in increasingly loaded conversations between Di and husband David (Sergio Di Zio). After finding blood on her son’s shirt, a very concerned Di presses David for details of the altercation. The crucial circumstances, fixating on a salacious video of Jack and Cara, are gradually revealed in a series of snapshots. These rapid-fire scenes, with pulsing transitions, have a certain exhilarating momentum as the puzzle pieces come together and dubious motivations are exposed, but it’s a little too snappy to feel properly grounded.
Having accused Jack of a very bad thing, Cara becomes an obstacle to their son’s success—a goal to which David and Di have dedicated significant time, money and love. Initially both are equally trusting and protective of their son, though Di begins to dig deeper. Accosting her son’s soft-spoken and suspiciously aloof best friend Nick (endearingly portrayed by Tavaree Daniel-Simms), she begins an investigation that reveals dark truths about her son, her husband and herself.
Follows’ fully embodies the determination and empathy that make Di a sympathetic figure, even as her choices become somewhat sinister. In one of the more stylized flourishes crafted by director Mark McGrinder and lighting designer Logan Raju Cracknell, she stares into a sharply focused spotlight meant to suggest the glow of the contentious video, her face subtly shifting—unreadable yet entirely hypnotic.
Her dynamic with Di Zio is, at first, quite sweet. Often butting heads, they fumble with their suddenly amplified parental responsibility in the face of moral, legal and psychological forces. As Di and David wrestle with their own memories of youth and speculate about their son’s intentions, we can see—in their high-strung, middle-aged awkwardness—the teenagers they once were. Discovering each other anew, realizing they might not be the people they thought they were, some of their nastier instincts rise to the surface.
Jackie Chau’s forked set with its wood panels and frosted glass suggests a model, affluent home. This isn’t the Bridal Path, but it is very deliberately removed from the Scarborough of Di’s snide comments. There is some irony here: this is not a place where people are allowed to be messy or complicated and yet… here we are.
I thoroughly enjoyed this thriller, especially the charged scenes between Nasato and Follows, but it doesn’t feel like something I need to revisit. It’s not as probing or emotionally resonant as it strives to be.
Four Minutes Twelve Seconds
running April 20 to May 12, 2024
Tarragon Theatre, Extraspace (30 Bridgman Avenue)
running time: 80 minutes (no intermission)
Jadyn Nasato and Megan Follows in ‘Four Minutes Twelve Seconds’, Photo by Dahlia Katz