A play about a conversation between four politically conservative Catholic young people, “Heroes of the Fourth Turning” opens Wednesday in the E. Frank Gilson Lab Theatre.
“Heroes of the Fourth Turning” premiered in 2019 and was written by American playwright, screenwriter and TV writer Will Arbery. The play is set in 2017, just after the monumental 2016 presidential election.
Four young Catholic friends, along with their mentor, meet in at a backyard to discuss and debate politics, religion and life in general after attending a party to celebrate their mentor’s induction as president at a college.
After the election, Arbery began writing “Heroes of the Fourth Turning” out of disdain for the result. Raised in a conservative Catholic home, he drew inspiration from his own life. The small college in the play, though fictional, is based on the institution of which his father was once the president.
“I personally felt a lot of anger, and perceived a lot of anger, at the people who could’ve made that happen,” Arbery said in an interview with the New York Times in 2019. “I just felt like I had a responsibility to write about five of those people.”
OU’s production of “Heroes of the Fourth Turning” is directed by dramaturgy senior James McCabe. According to McCabe, it’s interesting to see how people interpret the show.
“It’s a really hard show to sell to someone without them reading it,” McCabe said. “Because if it is just five conservatives talking about their politics in 2017, that can be a turnoff."
McCabe describes the characters as very complex, with a lot of layers bubbling under the surface of what they appear to be. Acting and computer science senior Lydia Bloomfield plays Emily, the daughter of a professor at her former college who suffers from chronic illness.
“She’s definitely one of the more progressive characters in terms of her beliefs in the play,” Bloomfield said. “She’s more empathetic, her beliefs diverge a lot more from the other characters.”
Dress rehearsal for "Heroes of the Fourth Turning" on April 25.
According to Bloomfield, McCabe’s directing approach brings the actors back to the text time and time again, which she says is helpful as the play is super specific and written with much detail.
“The playwright is incredibly intelligent and I think it's really, really important to get accurate about the characters,” Bloomfield said.
Acting sophomore Ethan Walker is the production dramaturg, and he describes his role as being a research consultant. The show references classical education, philosophy, religion and politics, so Walker created an annotated script explaining the references. He also led a presentation prior to the first rehearsal going over the history, themes, recurring ideas and in-depth information about the characters.
Walker said that despite the heavy subject matter the play deals with, the rehearsal process has been fun as the cast and crew work well together. They all join together after rehearsal to decompress from the emotional toll some scenes can take and come back down to reality.
“Everyone gets involved and takes care of each other after working on some heavy subject matter,” Walker said.
Walker hopes that the audience can see that the show is about how people are people, no matter who they are, and that everyone is experiencing some sort of pain or struggle.
“It’s important to get past our disagreements and empathize with one another,” Walker said.
Bloomfield said she feels that “Heroes of the Fourth Turning” is even more relevant today than when it was written due to America's political climate ahead of this year's election.
“What we experienced in 2016 almost seems to have like, another cycle in this year, as well, in terms of politics,” Bloomfield said.
“Heroes of the Fourth Turning” opens at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, and has shows at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday at the E. Frank Gilson Lab Theatre.
“I think people should come in preparing to be uncomfortable but preparing to be understanding,” McCabe said.
This story was edited by Emma Blakley and Shelby Emery. Natalie Armour and Grace Rhodes copy edited this story.
