‘Heroes of the Fourth Turning’ @ Second Thought Theatre
—Jan Farrington
Dallas-raised playwright Will Arbery’s much discussed, praised, awarded, and hollered about play Heroes of the Fourth Turning has finally come ‘round to DFW, in an excellent, edgy production at Second Thought Theatre. It’s directed with deep clarity and understanding by Jay Duffer (assisted by Alejandro Saucedo), and the five cast members give what I can only call revelatory interpretations of the characters onstage.
Heroes won’t be what you expect, and I can’t predict your response—though it’s likely to be strong. You may not change your mind, but it will make you think about the tribes we’ve created and where they’re taking us. There are very few safe places to speak about politics these days. Heroes leaves us free to listen, as humans, to opinions voiced by people whose point-of-view we may/may not share—and not feel obliged to jump in with either counter-arguments or defences.
The play’s political and social currents are a focus, but not everything: they overlay a soul-shaking uncertainty among the characters—a hunger and questing that appears in variable guises from funny to terrifying. Heroes is, in my book, an astonishing work of imagination from this young playwright—and we’re lucky its regional premiere fell into the hands of Second Thought, a company that’s never shied away from challenging work.
“I didn’t expect so many laughs,” said my college friend (and plus-one) after the opening night. Good thing, that: Arbery’s difficult play wouldn’t work without them. The laughs, in fact, have a life of their own. In New York, where the play premiered in 2019 at Playwrights Horizons, the Manhattan audiences were stunned, sometimes into gasps of laughter, by their encounter with a group of young and very conservative Catholics, alums of the small but fiery Transfiguration College (a fictitious place, but real enough if you know where to look) tucked away in the outback of Wyoming. Rare birds, these characters, seldom seen on NYC stages except as figures of fun or evil. It was, as an elderly woman (at another Manhattan theater) told me the day after she saw Heroes, one of the “oddest” theatre experiences of her life.
Here in Texas, where evangelical and Catholic conservatives are thicker on the ground, this isn’t a first encounter for most of us, and much of the audience laughter felt like rueful recognition—though the classical/intellectual bent of this particular brand of Catholicism may be startling to some. Burly ex-Marine Justin (Taylor Harris), who breaks horses and pushes for weapons training at the college, sits down and launches straight into Aristotelian philosophy, wielding the word eudaimonia with ease. (Look it up.)
These are classically educated people, friends and graduates of Transfiguration who have returned to honor the college’s charismatic new president Gina (Emily Gray), a much-loved professor and mentor. Gina is also the mother of Emily (Savannah Yasmine Elayyach), a sweet soul and sometimes invalid, caught in the physical pain of a disease that’s wracked her body for most of those seven years.
They catch up in conversations about careers, faith, politics, and all the ways their distinct college experience has, or hasn’t, “served” them well in the world. Trump comes up, as do Obama and “W" and Hillary, plus Pat Buchanan, the John Birch Society, Black Lives Matter, and the Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. They talk sex, porn, marriage, children, abortion, the generational “turnings” of history—and whether it’s better in a time of crisis to shelter and survive in isolation, or plunge forward to challenge and oppose. Liberal, conservative, progressive, agrarian…Arbery doesn’t let any of the debaters get off easily.
Sharp, take-no-prisoners Teresa (Dani Nelson) is Brooklyn-based, and in the thick of the political scene (Trump, Bannon, et al; the play is set in August 2017, two days before an eclipse, as it happens). Her ferocity makes us laugh, if only to break up the tension she generates. Kevin (Mac Welch), a scattered, puppy-dog classmate (Teresa is impatient with his arrested development) wants to pull her into the kind of “big conversation” they often had in college. Teresa complains that Kevin starts with ideas, but quickly makes things personal (and weepy): Should he become a priest? Why can’t he find a girlfriend? If Teresa is the zealot, then Kevin is an unholy fool—though he may be more than he seems.
Harris’ Justin came to Transfiguration from a stint in that outside world, looking for a way to save his soul. He’s a tough, troubled man, a hunter, a gentle friend (or perhaps more) to fragile Emily. We like his nurturing spirit, but draw back as his steely certainties come to the surface. Like Teresa, he sees a “war” coming and wants the students to be ready for it. Elayyach’s Emily has also been out there, working for a clinic that provides resources for pregnant women. She has a close friend who works at Planned Parenthood—and her insistence that the friend is “a good person” makes Teresa crazy.
At a mid-point of the play, a final character joins the party—college president Gina, who will roil the waters of their discussion in some interesting and important ways. Emily Gray’s soft-spoken demeanor belies her core strength; she jokes and cajoles up to a point, but when her truths are on the line, watch out. And though we warm to her—and to some of her more unexpected opinions—Arbery gives Gina a cold, cutting line or two that let us know she might not be the nurturing mother figure we thought.
In Justin Locklear’s backyard setting, the woods loom dark and close, but Aaron Johansen’s lights shine softly in this wilderness, on the fire pit and seating around Justin’s simple rented house (almost a character itself). Joshua Nguyen’s sound design (with consultant Preston Gray) is well-curated, and meets the biggest challenge of the play perfectly—while Sarah Mosher’s character-driven costumes are quite right, from Teresa’s navy sheath to Emily’s long skirts and layered sweaters.
Heroes of the Fourth Turning is the kind of mind-stretching play that doesn’t come along very often—and, says STT executive director Parker Gray, it was “intentionally selected for a Dallas audience in an election year." You’ll see why. The first weekend of performances was a sellout. I wouldn’t wait too long to snag a ticket.
WHEN: March 17-April 13, 2024
WHERE: Bryant Hall (Kalita Humphreys Campus), 3400 Blackburn, Dallas
WEB: secondthoughttheatre.com
