The Boston Globe - Recommended
"...There are few cliches more shopworn than to say that a play is one you'll talk about on your way home from the theater. But with a surefire conversation-starter like "Heroes of the Fourth Turning," it has the virtue of being true."
WBUR - Highly Recommended
"...Art-visual, performance or otherwise-can engage or repel, excite or anger, inspire or extinguish. Sometimes, it can do all these things, and more, all at once. Playwright Will Arbery achieves this in "Heroes of the Fourth Turning," which uses a conversation among four friends as a lens to view conservative Catholicism and whiteness. The play at SpeakEasy Stage shows now through Oct. 8."
Talkin Broadway - Recommended
"...Marianna Bassham's production at SpeakEasy allows Heroes of the Fourth Turning to sneak up on you; it's a lively and messy exchange of ideas among characters who each, in their own way, are hiding some sort of pain. Everyone we see is primarily shaped by their political conservatism and their whiteness. Their political beliefs have been fashioned by their time at–or association with–Transfiguration, a school that shapes intellectual pursuits through a faith-first curriculum. It's a play that takes seriously the thinkers and change-makers emerging on the religious right, whose late-night philosophizing may end up shaping the future of the national conservative movement."
The Arts Fuse - Somewhat Recommended
"...As the Bannon-ite Teresa, Dayna Cousins delivers dogmatic bluster with the fervor of a Fox News commentator, denouncing the “soy boys” who won’t be of much use in the “fourth turning,” a violent spin of the wheel in a cockamamie schema that charts generational change. But Cousins falters at conveying the character’s (somewhat) drummed-up revelation of weakness. Karen MacDonald provides some welcome humor as the impatient Gina, who undercuts the political/personal hysteria with some moderating — if conventionally two-faced — conservative attitude. Still, her portrait could use more shocked steeliness: if these are typical graduates of Transfiguration College, then the school is churning out sad souls far flung from the Way of Christ."
New England Theater Mirror - Highly Recommended
"...There's a lot to unpack in playwright Will Arbery's Heroes of the Fourth Turning, the thought-provoking political drama now running at Speakeasy Stage. Brilliantly acted by a terrific ensemble, Heroes is billed as a look at "a country at war with itself," but in truth delves more specifically into the internal divides within the Catholic wing of the Republican party brought on by the election of Donald Trump. Interestingly, the play is set in 2017, two days before the solar eclipse and just one week after the white nationalist riots in Charlottesville - which means that the play pre-dates the 2020 election and the ensuing insurrection at the Capital that led the Republican party to desert their conservative principles in deference to the Big Lie pushed by the former president."
The New England Theatre Geek - Recommended
"...Dayna Cousins, Jesse Hinson, Nathan Malin, and Elise Piliponis give excellent performances. Each actor drew out the opposing foils of their cast members. Hinson and Malin, and Piliponis and Cousins bounced off of each other like similarly-charged magnets. They send each other careening across the stage until one of them actually vomits."
The Sleepless Critic - Highly Recommended
"...Heroes of the Fourth Turning is a fascinating, darkly humorous, and concerning look at human nature and though the ending seems outlandish, the clever script offers an interesting perspective on what happens even among the supposed like minded."
Joyce's Choices - Highly Recommended
"...SPEAKEASY STAGE has just kicked off its season with perhaps the most daring, intelligently written, and eye-opening production onstage right now in progressive theater circles: HEROES OF THE FOURTH TURNING. The play is a sharp, densely-written theatrical exploration of conservatism, specifically the rift between old and new Catholic conservatives as they debate the hot topics of the day: racism, abortion, religion, Trump, as well as the philosophical, political, and intellectual underpinnings of these arguments right down to the value of empathy–a healing mechanism for connection? Or an emotionally self-righteous swamp that breeds complacency?"
