Four Minutes Twelve Seconds review, Hampstead Downstairs

It is amazing how quickly parenthood turns our ethics and values on their heads. When a child's wellbeing is at stake, we argue black is white. At its baldest, it's liberals like Emma Thompson railing against privilege while sending their children to private schools; or the upright parents of Bullingdon Club members paying the bills when their boys go berserk on other people's property, rather than risk little George or little Boris being banged up.  In Four Minutes Twelve Seconds, David and Di are faced with a similar moral dilemma when their 17-year-old son Jack's dodgy sex tape ends up on YouTube.

To add to their woes, the family of Jack's girlfriend, Cara, is not happy. As the video notches up 500,000 hits, Jack comes home with a broken nose after a run-in with Cara's brother. What follows is a minute unravelling of a story built around fairly commonplace foolhardiness. Sexting is the new texting and it's only a week, after all, since Brooks Newmark resigned after sending a photo of his penis to a stranger.  But of course nothing is ever that simple when adolescents are involved. Not only is Cara's family outraged about the public showing of the  Four Minutes Twelve Seconds tape, there's an allegation of rape doing the rounds. Tiger-mum Di sends Jack to his aunt's and flexes her claws on her son's behalf...

The twists that follow are highly believable and the Four Minutes Twelve Seconds of internet exposure are almost incidental in what is essentially an examination of family relationships. At its heart is the power of, and for,  parental protection and sacrifice - even if the sacrifice is someone else's child. Having strived to send their son to the best school and to set him up for a better life, is it fair that a Croydon harpie with bling and attitude should bring him down? At the end of 90 minutes, we are as wrung out as they are, and probably just as confused about how the situation should be managed.

In conclusion: This is a first play by James Fritz and it's full of promise. The premise is interesting. The dialogue is spare, though there is still too much of it, but one imagines it will move more briskly as the cast find their rhythm. Simply directed by Anna Ledwich, it's an interesting piece with strong central performances from Jonathan McGuinness and Kate Maravan.

References
Four Minutes Twelve Seconds, Tickets


Hampstead Theatre, Eton Avenue, London NW3 3EU   Run ends November 1