PicksInSix Review: Heroes of the Fourth Turning-A Red Orchid Theatre
Challenging ‘Heroes’ Roils Discussion and Debate
PicksInSix® Review | Guest Contributor | Ronald Keaton
The current production of Will Arbery's challenging “Heroes of the Fourth Turning” at A Red Orchid Theatre through December 6 offers ideas that are hateful and difficult to hear, let alone accept, and just plain wrong to a large number of people. Some might consider its subject matter quite anachronistic after the results of the midterm elections. It's not an easy play to watch and absorb. But as with the catalogue of thoughtful presentations at A Red Orchid Theatre over the years, it indeed makes you think—maybe too much, but hey, that's naturally contained in, as the saying goes, the 'belly of the beast' for Mr. Arbery—and in the end to many, it's good theatre.
The story takes place in 2017. The tragedy of Charlottesville, Virginia has just occurred in the dawn of the first Trump administration. Four former students have gathered at their arch-conservative college in Wyoming to celebrate the appointment of their beloved Dr. Gina (Kirsten Fitzgerald, authoritative and articulate as ever) to the presidency of the fictional Transfiguration College of Wyoming. It's a university that prepares its students, in essence, to defend the principles of Catholicism. And of course, all the issues associated with the church—abortion and Roe vs Wade, the battle against the rights of trans people, the support for a controversial political figure—come up for discussion and debate.
We're at a kind of after-party of Gina’s ceremony. Four old friends are catching up with each other at Justin’s house. There’s Teresa, the ultra-Trump blogger (Isa Grofsorean, gamely and intelligently tackling the proponent of Trumpian conservative thought) who makes a habit of ensnaring people with manipulative debate in endless, sometimes mindless bursts. Kevin (Beck Nolan), the depressed screw-up—or ‘soyboy,’ as Teresa calls him—works for a Catholic textbook company in Oklahoma and is a kind of lost soul in the group. There’s Gina’s daughter, Emily (a delicate, nuanced turn by Magdalena Dalzell and the most well-formed character in the play), whose unnamed physical disability is a constant source of pain and often dictates her own thoughts. And there's the host, Justin (Nate Santana is a wonderful calming presence as a man considering joining a monastery), whose own philosophical bent is constantly interrupted by a 'generator' that goes haywire every so often.
The philosophical battles are within the conservative mind frame, and not everyone agrees with Teresa and her staunch defense of Trump. In fact, when Dr. Gina finally enters halfway through the play, it's ironic that as the elder in the room—the one with the most depth on all things Catholic AND conservative—she stands toe-to-toe with Teresa and speaks of what she considers the hateful nature of that time we entered, and Dr. Gina is not the good guy, by any measure. It's difficult to regard this play in many ways. Actors are shouting at the top of their voices to an audience that sits six feet away from the action. But the consistently positive thing it does is in offering characters that have a strong point of view—even within the personal weakness that Kevin speaks of—and that, at the end of the play, there remains room for a small surprise. Emily offers a kind of forgiveness that is steeped in both bitterness and hope. It's a fascinating monologue that Ms. Dalzell offers movingly.
It's often wise to do research for a play unfamiliar to many of us, and it's telling, in fact, it's vital, that we know some of that history in this play's roots. Mr. Arbury comes from a family that has deep connections with Wyoming Catholic College, the apparent model for the one in the play. It's located in Lander, Wyoming, a small town of roughly 7,500 residents in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Knowing all this implies a protective and ringing endorsement of literary authenticity to what is discussed. It's also telling that the play achieved Pulitzer Prize consideration in 2020 as well.
AROT ensemble member and director dado bravely guides all the moving parts here into one unit on a well-considered set of a porch and a yard stretching toward the mountains, designed by AROT ensemble member Grant Sabin. The play itself is a challenge at two hours with no intermission, but it inspires and even forces us to consider our own societal positions. There's no subtle approach here, it's all pretty much in-your-face. The rhetoric is difficult and the subject matter is hard. But it's treated with a degree of candor and care that allows, even encourages, those discussions afterward.
GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | RONALD KEATON received an Equity Jeff Award for the performance of his one-man show CHURCHILL. Coming soon, his new solo play about Ben Franklin, THE FIRST EMBASSY. www.solochicagotheatre.com.
PHOTO | Evan Hanover
A Red Orchid Theatre
presents
Chicago Premiere
Heroes of the Fourth Turning
1531 North Wells Street
through December 6, 2026
WEBSITE
Digital Playbill
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