Review: The Four Minute Mile
Trevor Small (Len Forsythe) and Suzette McCanny (Sharon Kaplowski), Photo by Gord Tultz
The Four Minute Mile – Toronto Fringe Festival – Official Site
If The Four Minute Mile is intended to be about a man descending into jackassery, I’d say the problem is that it isn’t much of a descent. An unsympathetic protagonist, too much story compression and a bizarre conclusion that turns the entire play into an extended joke mar what seems to be an otherwise talented company.
Ostensibly, the story is about Len Forsythe (Trevor Small), an office-drone-turned-motivational speaker who encourages others to live their lives to the fullest only to lose his own in doing so. Forsythe’s obsession with his career ultimately leads to his old friend Darryl (Brian Starks) having the opportunity to use Les’ own techniques to transform himself into some kind of Neil Strauss / Mystery figure, with all of the implied creepiness intact, who then steals Les’ longtime girlfriend Sharon (Suzette McCanny). Why Sharon isn’t Les’ wife by this point in the play isn’t explained, but I’m guessing it’s because the motivational mojo Darryl appropriates doesn’t register as powerful enough to break up a marriage in the 45 seconds that it takes Darryl to convince Suzette to get drunk with him. This is the only thing in the play that really happens – everything else is just kind of a setup, and a broad one at that.
And what parallel is the show’s title, an allusion to Roger Bannister’s then-thought impossible run of the four-minute mile, supposed to have within the play? Is it the idea that Darryl, a diminutive electrician, could have the tedious machismo to swipe the girl of a seething self-love guru? Electricians make bank, bro.
Whatever the title may refer to, it certainly isn’t the easily foregone success of Forsythe, whom the play goes out of its way to establish as endlessly successful with women (he loves them and leaves them, prior to meeting and immediately seducing Suzette on the first day he meets her) incredibly intelligent (he gets into every college in a large book of colleges) and professionally invincible (he gets ‘fired’ from a job when its contract runs out – I don’t think he knows what being fired is.)
If all this ubermensch is intended to set Forsythe up as someone who won’t see his fall coming, as well as the type of person ripe for exploitation by the ego-gratifying motivational speaking industry, it’s understandable. Unfortunately, it also renders him almost completely impossible to rally behind, giving you no real stake in whatever happens to him. If the company had more time, or made different choices, maybe they could have elaborated on his character to the point where we could care.
In the end, what is this play? Is it a call for humility through a criticism of superiority? There is lots of stuff in the play about Ancient Rome, and how their empire fell apart because of how sick they were of being so badass, and how its individual parts preferred a less potent but more personal identity. In the end, though, Darryl wins over Suzette with the same old Roman bullshit. Maybe this play is about how Suzette is a woman locked in an endless cycle of dating emergent alpha male douche bags? I guess that ground has been covered.
The Good: Performances across the board are solid, and direction in the minimal space is well done. Trevor Small and Suzette McCanny have the right kind of chemistry – attracted to each other, but kind of confused by each other at the same time. McCanny is a bit of a doormat whenever Small is being a gigantic crybaby in a way that I’m not sure reflects what long-term relationships are really like, but the script may not give them much of a choice.
The Bad: The use of multimedia is problematic, both in content and amplification, but I’m told that this may have been specific to the performance I attended. Also, you know, everything else.
The Final Verdict: If the subject matter of motivational speaking interests you, or if you really like to focus on performance, it’s probably worth the sit. Otherwise, I think Theatre Symbiosis is a group to watch for in the future. This is probably a middle-of-the-road play for the Fringe, it’s just made worse by what could have been done with more – all in all, maybe it just tries to cram too much into what it wants to do.
(Disclosure: I have known the Director of this show for many years.)
