Heroes of the Fourth Turning: a reading at BCT

Or: Naked and Afraid

Heroes of the Fourth Turning, the prickly wonder by Will Arbery has come to BCT’s 5x5 reading series, and for its full, intermission less two hours and ten minutes it captured those present through everything it could be.

Set in the summer of 2017 (And whoo boy does it come off like a period piece now. I request a sequel) Arbery places us in rural Wyoming at a reunion of sorts for graduates of a small, highly Conservative Catholic college. Four former friends have gathered to celebrate their mentors elevation to college President and discuss the state of the nation, as well as their souls.

Directed by Jessica Ires Morris (who also stepped in at the last second to play Gina, the aforementioned president and treasured mentor of most of the younger youth) this reading of Heroes leans into the play as a tournament of ideas; the smell of lightning filing the theater as arguments are hammered out between vastly different people try to find grace in each-other.

Every time I touch upon it I am more and more amazed by Arbery’s writing: his ability to make debate a lively invigorating process rather than a slog, the care he takes of his characters even at their most craven or ruthless, his ability to handle both their humanity and total ridiculousness (re: the Grateful Acre). I love that the heavy lifting of the play is primarily between women. Emily (Amela Karadza) and Theresa (Zoe Kelly), while Kevin (Davy Collins, who starts off the play at a ten and keeps finding higher numbers on the dial to tick to) simmers and pops and claws after a new idea and Justin (Jake Atkinson) sits silent in his GOB stillness, with sin heavy on his heart.

Karadza contorts herself love thy naighbor martyr who’s chronic pain and constant crushing betrayal breathe behind her words, while Kelly seethes with confidence, her face crinkled in a Cheshire Cat smile as she manufactures a confectionary of political bon mots, certain that the world is a hanging apple for her to sink her teeth into, (until it gets jerked out of her grasp.) Kelly also has a lovely repartee with Collins( who tempers Kevin’s comedic and disturbing whirlwind to touch down to earth at the right moments); both actors plumbing deeper depths than the shallow power dynamic the characters might splash around.

Arbery crafts his characters with much love but no mercy, and Morris (even in her own sterling turn, the empress gliding over cracking ice) makes sure that both virtues shine in her production (with the decision to keep us Stockholmed for the full length of the play, and providing the necessary sound cues of the Sixth Voice). The best staged readings leave in its audience a desire to see the full production, but at the same time give you the impression that you’ve seen the full riches of the show all ready. Its a vanishingly small mark, and Morris and her crew have nailed it right in the center.