←Recommendations of Heroes of the Fourth Turning

I grew up with these people. "Heros" is an immaculate display and interrogation of the ideals of a group not used to being on the fringes or in the shadows as they are in the present in American society: the intellectual conservative. Abrey's characters speak with an almost frustrating clarity and breadth, articulating the pathologies of people who in ideological opposition to my own politics and ethics; a total reversal of the echo chamber. As many have said, a need play of the moment that demands to be heard.

An exceptional portrait of modern Intellectual Conservatism penned with a masterful hand. Arbery presents honesty in such a way that feels off-putting until you realize that which with its reverberating are your own biases and questions. A script that defies possibility in the theatre, and thus makes it all the more necessary.

The Play of the Moment, one we’ll be telling future theatre makers where we were when we first saw it or read its mighty text. Everyone should do whatever they can to get their hands on a copy of this play. Exceptional

I know these people. I hesitate to even call them characters because even growing up in southern California, I was surrounded by people just like Emily, Justin, Teresa, and Kevin -- conservative Catholics who I called my friends. I was riveted by every single conversation in Heroes of the Fourth Turning. I love how much I disagreed with them, while still leaning into the thought process. This play is magnificent and I hope I get to see it staged one day. Thank you, Will!

Such a valuable play, and now is the perfect time for it, too. I had heard so many good things about this play from the likes of Laura Pittenger and Franky Gonzalez (read them!).
Here we get to spy on our conservative neighbors as they slowly unravel right in front of us. Arbery offers his characters sympathy and affection, while never losing sight of the dangerous undercurrent beneath their thoughts, and of our political divisions.
Whole classes could be taught about Emily's final monologue. It is a masterpiece.
This whole play is an argument for why art exists at all.

I had a really hard time with this play and struggled immensely in the theatre because the dialogue is so well written and the characters were so difficult to like, and this is ultimately a good thing with which to contend - such mimesis! Kudos to Arbery who is able to write such arias with such an open heart.

As soon as I finished this play, I started reading it again. Arberry crafts his characters with such care that one can hate them and empathize with them simultaneously. It’s a jarring and necessary play that generated a familiar dread inside of me. Read it, then read it again.

There are plays that impress. There are even plays that shock you. Heroes of the Fourth Turning did both and something much more. It left me awed. I almost couldn't move from my seat in the theatre. Then buying and reading this play that outlined the evolution of conservatism from Goldwater to Bannon was like receiving something deeply true. Arbery has created a play that does not patronize nor seek to turn its subject matter into cartoon parodies like we see from so many other plays about conservatives. It's a play that won't leave you. I can't recommend it enough.

An incredible play. It climbed inside me and changed my cells. This play can change the world, I cannot recommend it more highly.

A beautifully compassionate rendering of a community in flux, living lives of quiet desperation. A unique lens on intelligent conservative Catholicism and its disciples during the Trump era. Wry, sly writing - passionate and deceptively unruly.