Heroes of the Fourth Turning - Play (Adults Only)

Tell me this. How do you feel about ongoing political debates, discussions, negotiations, or just politics in general? I don’t feel comfortable addressing my thoughts on them in this review, but here’s what I believe. At first, I found them quite interesting, if for little other reason than to listen to other people’s points of view and pick up on where they stood in their stance on American values.

Then, I noticed how ugly things became between them. Whether it’s between Republicans, Democrats, Conservatives, Liberals, or Libertarians, a semblance of territoriality has emerged among all political parties, not helped by the COVID-19 pandemic that struck in 2020. It even got to a point where such friction began to boil over and led to inevitable political assassinations. Even I can’t help but look back on the pre-COVID era as if we had it a little easier politically speaking than we have so far throughout the 2020s. 

So, in an age where political unease has become more rampant, no thanks to social media, what would have happened if it began to spill over even between long-time friends?

Well, the Pulitzer Prize-nominated play, Heroes of the Fourth Turning, addressed this conundrum ahead of schedule, and its approach to the issues being discussed amounted to a narrative, philosophical, and even acting powerhouse.

In this story, four buddies who attended a Catholic college together in Wyoming and graduated seven years ago gathered there for their reunion, and also to celebrate Gina‘s ascension as the newest president of the college. She was also the mother of one of the students participating in this conversation, Emily. Of course, while it began as a civil conversation between them about general goings-on, their discussions soon devolved into a series of bickering, arguments, and existential crises each of them dealt with. At one point, Gina stopped by to chat with them, too, only to be roped into their ongoing political and existential debates until she shared her two cents on the issues.

And that’s pretty much it. It was essentially watching these five characters gradually expose each other’s personalities and backstories to the point where they eventually revealed some uncomfortable truths about themselves, each other, and the then-current state of affairs they were dealing with.

I was fortunate enough to have seen this play, produced by the theater company UpstART, at the Wright Opera House in Ouray when it premiered in early 2024, and I was encouraged to check it out based on strong word of mouth. Some of my parents’ friends went over to them and told them how good they thought the play was, so then, my parents decided to take a gander at it next. Then, the next thing I knew, my parents were enthusiastic in their response and recommendation of the show to me when they passed it along to me. One of the biggest things they were blown away by about this production was the performances and how effectively each actor portrayed their characters as they unburdened themselves to one another.

And after finally checking it out for myself…man, am I glad I did. However, I noticed many more aspects that worked in this play’s favor besides just the acting.

Noelia Berkes

As you can tell from what I had recapped of the story, the play was about as straightforward as you’d get, and it’d seem as if nothing would stand out from this setup. At least, it’d seem that way, but what the characters said to each other and what they all went through before and during this reunion were engaging and strong enough to keep me hooked as they came clean to each other about their struggles, about what they believed in, how that would have affected their relationships with each other, and just what that would ultimately have said about themselves. All too often, we watched political debates unfold, where each participant would have chatted the day or night away about what they believed in, with nary a sign of middle ground between them.

Heroes of the Fourth Turning, on the other hand, engaged in political discussions more thoughtfully. Sure, they became gradually heated, and the characters chatting about them were Conservative, but it was never to a point where it seemed one-sided. There was still just a shred of connection and camaraderie between the characters, enough so to prevent it from looking like the relationships were about to dissolve due to such political admissions and convictions.

Now that I think about it, this almost felt like The Breakfast Club, but without the wild and crazy antics the characters engaged in. Instead, the play felt more like its communion scene, with the main characters all sitting together to vent their feelings about the life and society in which they lived, and what that said about themselves or their relationships with each other. In this case, however, whereas the characters in The Breakfast Club had to tolerate Principal Vernon as their sole adult presence, here, Gina was their sole adult companion, and they hailed her as a hero for sticking to her beliefs, even if, again, it would have led to some serious discourse between her and the four main characters about their stance on the then-ongoing issues. Keep in mind that the time of this play was set in 2017, shortly after the Charlottesville riots. And because we had Donald Trump as our president during that time, you can imagine how personal and heated the conversations about such ongoing issues became.

Speaking of which, let’s hop to the characters.

Emily was a young girl who had to be helped up by her boyfriend, Justin, and was also very modest about her opinions on certain people or things. And at first, she hit it off well with Kevin, who was getting along with her and caught up like the good buddies they seemingly were. Yet, despite her insistence that she was as fine as can be, especially after her mother, Gina, became the newest president of their Catholic college in Wyoming, her participation in this four-way, and soon to be five-way, conversation started to pull something out of her that she didn’t even know that she’d been harboring or that she even knew she was harboring for a long time.

Nate Cushing

Kevin, who seemed like the closest thing to a drunkard in the group, was a generally sad young man who always drank himself into near unconsciousness, always slurring his speech patterns and the way he talked about certain things. But whenever he was sober enough to be more talkative and able to express his opinions on such matters, he bemoaned all the things that had gone wrong in his life or that he wished he had, such as his wish to have Teresa as his girlfriend. He ultimately wondered whether it was smarter to achieve peace and live the holy life, as he believed everyone should strive to do. It led to a revelation on his part that highlighted what he truly remembered seeing and why he believed what he claimed to believe. He may have been sleazy with his drinking, but one might not help but feel pity for him when you take his past troubles and current conditions into consideration.

Teresa, who flew to Wyoming from New York City, was a keen and generally knowledgeable young lady. However, the longer she went on about her problems and opinions, the more she revealed her commitment, opinionated nature, and inflexibility regarding the ongoing issues. Outside of having flown in from New York City, she also admitted to establishing a website to discuss ongoing matters. I’d wager that she was a blogger back home, just like me. In addition, her conversations with Kevin implied that they likely had a serious relationship that, sadly, never went anywhere beyond graduation. And her conversations with Justin and Emily also highlighted her opinionated nature on specific issues, especially regarding abortion. Whereas Emily was somewhat sympathetic to the cause, due to her having had working relationships with people who performed such operations, Teresa was generally averse to abortion, to the point that her conversations with Emily about it bordered on accusatory.

Gina, who would have waltzed halfway into the play and the main characters’ conversation, was also a proud and distinguished woman. And judging from part of what she had written and read out loud of her acceptance speech and presentation from when she was nominated president of the Catholic college, she held her firm beliefs in high esteem. But while she expressed her pride in this way, she also expressed her tenderness, for she, being Emily’s mother, almost came across as an empathetic authority figure to the four main characters. However, as she continued to speak with them, especially Teresa, who hailed Gina as one of her heroes, she began to express part of her political convictions and background, which implied that she, too, had a lot of emotional and political baggage to carry and eventually unload.

Kevin Snyder

Of the five characters in the play, Justin was the one character I did not think had enough going for him. There were some interesting things about him, like when he started just lounging in the backyard of the cabin, which was his, I might add, when he noticed a deer and shot it, dragging its carcass into the house. Of course, while it was nice to see him automatically come to Emily’s aid, it was not until near the end of the play that he admitted to Emily that he had been keeping secrets from Emily about his long-term goals. He told her he wanted to and was preparing to be in a monastery soon. Emily, however, seemed desperate to be with him, especially after all the weight she’d carried with her. In addition, Justin admitted to her that every time he had gone over to tend to the allegedly malfunctioning generator in the house, he actually wasn’t.

It leads into one of the other aspects of Heroes of the Fourth Turning that gave it its muscle, which was the writing. The writing was powerful enough as far as the characters were concerned, but it aroused so much intrigue with nothing more than just the four – soon to be five – main characters sitting together in the cabin and sharing their feelings for an hour and a half. That takes a lot of skill, craftsmanship, and attention to detail to keep the momentum going all the way through and keep the characters as engaging as ever as they were on the phase of unburdening themselves to each other, whether for better or worse.

When I first saw this play, I was drawn into the story, the overall production of the play, and the riveting portrait this play and this presentation provided of what politically leaning people would have said or admitted to one another. And of course, I was utterly freaked out by the sudden outbursts of sound that screeched throughout the theater. At first, I thought, or rather, feared, that it had come from within the theater systems, but it turned out that it was part of the play, so I just went along with it and accepted it as part of the presentation. 

But there was more to the screeches than meets the ear. I remembered reading that the screeches that lunged forth from the malfunctioning generator occurred three times: the first time when Justin was playing a song on his guitar, the second time in the middle of Teresa and Gina’s increasingly heated arguments, and the last time just after Kevin admitted to his friends his memory of having had a vision near Pingora Peak about the possible coming of Christ himself. Those who commented on it remarked how they tied into the story’s beliefs of the fourth turning.

Teresa was the one who remarked about the four turnings that the title touched upon, and according to her, they would have occurred during the formation of a generational outcome and state of mind. The first was ‘High’, the second was ‘Awakening’, the third was ‘Unraveling’, and the last turning was ‘Crisis’.

Furthermore, Teresa elaborated on how one’s response to each turning would have determined one’s innate characteristics. During the ‘High’, people would have been made prophets. During the ‘Awakening’, people would have become nomads. During the ‘Unraveling’, people would have been encouraged to be heroes. But the people involved in a ‘Crisis’ would have been artists. Out of uncertainty about what good artists would have done during these circumstances, one thing the characters agreed on was that they’d try to be heroes at an age when the next ‘Crisis’ would likely be around the corner.

And because the screeching occurred three times in the play, and Justin admitted that none of them came from the generator, could it have been possible that they were all just random bursts of loud noise that occurred by supernatural forces? And each sudden outbursts of noise determined what the characters underwent during their gradually heated ‘reunion’?

It only made the mystery about what would’ve happened if the screech blared out for the fourth time most engaging to think about.

The burgeoning symbolism lurking underneath the canvas of this play was captivating enough, but the Wright Opera House’s production of Heroes of the Fourth Turning – I agree with my parents – had some of the most fabulous acting I’ve ever seen on stage so far.

© Ouray County Plaindealer

Whether the collective characterizations each actor had to capture in this play had anything to do with it or not, it was evident that each actor in the presentation owned their roles and poured their heart and soul into their how they’d have acted it out, just like how the characters put their heart and soul into conveying to each other what they believed in, even if they knew it could have potentially torn them apart.

Kevin Snyder, as Justin, demonstrated a general aptitude in his character, even in activities that would have required mental and physical stamina, such as killing a deer. However, whenever he revealed his sensitive side, such as when he cared for Emily or defended her against Kevin or the others, his more protective and supportive side began to emerge in extreme situations.

When I saw Nate Cushing acting out his role as Kevin, I thought of him as if he was genuinely drinking himself into exhaustion, like he did it for a living. His groggy-sounding, generally inconsistent method of speaking was such that I was a touch put off by his general ineptitude. But as he began to express his lovesickness, whether it was to Teresa or in general, that’s when I started to understand the pain that he had hidden underneath his lackluster image and wondered what more he would’ve said at his most sober or that would have unveiled some inner hidden wisdom that we would not have expected to hear from him.

Liv Campbell

Liv Campbell as Emily? She expressed utmost vulnerability as she allowed herself to be carried by Kevin Snyder, as Justin, looking as if she had some extensive physical problems on stage. However, despite these physical limitations and strains, she maintained her general well-being as she spoke with her friends or her mother. It eventually made her look like she tried to keep her head held high when everyone around her started acting like they were about to lose their heads instead.

The actress playing Gina, Kate Kissingford, conveyed a wide range of emotions and innate feelings as someone who’d run institutions like the Catholic college for an extensive portion of her career and showed it even in her more low-key conversations with her pupils. Of course, while she still showed it when speaking with Justin, Kevin, and especially Teresa, she expressed a general layer of professionalism and a simultaneous motherly love when attempting to reason with them about their opinions and why they all thought the way they did. I believe the most blatant examples were her conversations with Teresa and her daughter, Emily. When she spoke with Teresa, she felt as though she were trying to reason with her as if she were her surrogate daughter. With Emily, she tried to understand her daughter, even if it became more evident that Emily was trying to understand her own mother.

But two performances cemented the play’s acting as some of the strongest I’ve ever seen on stage.

The first was from Noelia Berkes as Teresa. As I watched her own up to her character’s conviction and insecurities, she gradually conveyed her hostility and desperation with borderline sincerity. It was as if she had notably fit her character’s persona like a glove, but in so doing, emphasized her character’s reactions and personal beliefs as if she would have known how to respond to such things in real life. Overall, her performance felt like the strongest consistently from beginning to end.

That leaves us with the second performance, which was from Liv Campbell. Don’t get me wrong, her performance in general was terrific, but her conveyance of Emily’s breakdown at the end of the play was the definite highlight. This moment was so powerful that it left me and the audience around me stunned into silence. After Justin told Emily the truth about his dreams and aspirations, Campbell began to emotionally unravel as Emily unleashed what she felt about Justin, her friends, herself, her pro-abortion buddies, and even Gina. Emily gradually unloaded all her self-doubts, inner frustrations, unfiltered thoughts, and what felt like her inner demons as Campbell emoted it all out with all her strength and prowess. She truly left me feeling like I watched someone own up to her confessional condition and own up to it to the very end until she felt at peace with herself, especially physically. It was little wonder that my parents and her friends came back and commented on the general power of the performances. When I saw this production of the play, I felt the characters’ dilemmas because of how authentic and heartfelt the performances were.

Kate Kissingford

Of course, as astounded as I was by Kate Kissingford’s performance as Gina, it was not until recently that I rediscovered how she also directed the production I had seen of Heroes of the Fourth Turning and also cofounded UpstART. If the way she spoke or emoted with her fellow co-actors, who were arguably younger than her, were anything to judge her directing by, I’d say she knocked that aspect out of the park, too. To be both an actor in and the director of a production, you’d have to enact a certain quality out of the actors as you spoke with them in person as effectively as you would have had to do when arranging every aspect of the production itself, not to mention with the actors from any distance. With this in mind, her attention to detail in both the sets and the acting seemed clear and compelling in this production. The way I saw it, Kissingford excelled in letting the emotional rollercoaster rides that the characters went through, down to their unveiled humanity, carry as much weight and importance as the accompanying features that helped enhance the play into a truly soul-searching experience.

Furthermore, Kissingford admitted to being progressive, but was nonetheless empathetic enough to people of any political affiliation to have given them the proper spotlight and allowed them to vent out feelings that were more anguished than discriminatory. As she commented,

My hope is, just honestly, whatever political or religious divides we have, that we’re willing to sit in a room together and ponder what it is to be human.

That remark alone, and not just what’d be felt from the play, would’ve invited a borderline political neutrality throughout the play that I consider most refreshing, especially when there’s so much rampant one-sidedness apparent in many politically affiliated systems.

Even then, as happy as I was to have seen the play when I could have, I believe there’s far more to love about this play than just the performances, no matter who would have played the roles. It had a firm grasp on heavily debated political issues that are still being discussed several years after the play premiered in 2019. Say what you will about America’s current state of affairs and where the future may lead, but one thing’s for sure. As long as we have even a decent shred of common sense and the audacity to work our way out of our more innate complications, then we might have a chance to come clean about our imperfections and know what the next step should be to take as conflicts grow broader and deeper around us.

Whichever of you has a political leaning, do yourself a favor and lend an ear to this play. What you might learn from this experience would likely stick with you and reverberate for a long time.

My Rating

A low A

Works Cited

Arbery, W. (2023). Heroes of the Fourth Turning. Theatre Communications Group, Inc.

Wiggins, M. (2024, February 7). In “Heroes of the Fourth Turning”, young conservative characters take center stage. Ouray County Plaindealer, pp. 2, 20.