Review: In ‘Heroes of the Fourth Turning,’ a Red-State Unicorn

What a tedious, boring, self-indulgent, overwrought play. Do not waste your time or money. How this got rave reviews and extended I have no clue. Despite sitting in the front row i had to close my eyes several times to shut out the tiresome dialogue. I was so grateful when it was over. Also, fair warning—they claim it’s two hours with no intermission, but it ran almost twenty minutes over that. Not OK.

I saw SLAVE PLAY at a Saturday matinee and then FOURTH TURNING that night. I was intrigued by both, and would like to see both of them again. There was enough all along the spectrum to make anyone ask questions about themselves. (However, two (2) hour long plays in one day-both intermissionless, was a bit of a struggle. )

"drunken dark night of the soul" - clever reference!

Another occasion when a NYT Critic’s Pick turned out to be an excruciating couple of hours at the theatre. This play was all over the place...the characters were not compelling and mostly over-the-top with their speechifying. Thankfully “mom” showed up and there was a bit of wit and realistic dialogue. I sure hope “Slave Play”, Mr. Green’s other “pick”, is better than this was.

How wonderful to sit in a room and be mesmerized by all the reasons we love good theatre - writing, acting, and directing. The fact that you may not agree with most of the ideas these characters espouse is reason enough to pay attention. But I have to emphasize that it’s the acting that carries the day here. These amazing performances turn a difficult script into an entertaining and enlightening rapid-fire two hours of thought provoking theatre. What’s better than that?

I loved the complexity of the characters, their flaws, and the tensions among them. The discussion of political theory and theology could have gone deeper, though in expressing their views and the nuances among their competing perspectives, because I enjoy intellectual history.

This play was an undergrad thesis. A total waste of time and money. It needed editing, the plot went NOWHERE.

Though Jesse Green tries hard, his biases, conscious and unconscious, are everywhere revealed by his language. Not only does Christian conservatism come in for his condescension, but we learn that Gina's daughter Emily has "escaped Wyoming," as if Wyoming is a federal prison. Has Green ever been to Lander (where Wyoming Catholic is located?) Does he think the natural world's splendors are found in Central Park? This kind of myopia--and its self-satisfaction--are part of what is tearing our country apart.

Astonishing? I was shocked that Playwrights Horizon thought this was ready for production. That’s the real astonishment, and it makes me question what the heck is going on over there. Heroes did not move us anywhere and elicited no understanding - it was like a drive through the midwest without the expansive beauty. It’s a great - even necessary- idea that needed to be hammered out in workshop for a while yet. (Also astonishing is this review. I feel like I slipped over to Earth II.)

A preachy, Insipid, excruciating, cliched play It if Incredibly long slow dogmatic discussions of Catholic Orthodox thinking Characters are not interesting and do not have decent morals and a plot that look charitably on conservative thought. Flawed mess of a plot Also I wanted to like some of the characters but by the end of the play none of them could be likable. Terribly flawed and damaged as they all were by their beliefs it was painful to sit for 2 hours watching this darkly staged play. The stage is too dark to see any of the actors faces and while they try to give it their all, it cannot work in the dark

I would like someone at the New York Times to think about what I'm writing because it is in a sense addressed to the whole editorial approach of the Times. One of my published books is called "The Bible and the New York Times,"and that is a dead-serious title, not a satirical one. I am a passionately committed reader of the Times in its totality and I regularly defend the paper against all detractors. But when I read something like the review of "Heroes of the Fourth Turning" I can readily understand why a large number of my friends and colleagues--not only in flyover country but also right here in Manhattan--are offended by the paper. The assumption that no Times reader will know any conservative evangelicals is maddening. I find it offensive that Mr. Green seems to take it for granted that no traditional Christian believer could actually be reading his review. The whole tone of sneering disdain is palpable. I was really shocked by it, particularly because Mr. Green seems unaware that some of the readers of this review just might be not unlike the persons portrayed on the stage, unless s/he is "a hard-line Catholic conservative," obviously considered a lower form of life. (I am a Protestant.) I will be interested to investigate what the playwright's father might think about that.

"We get a strong sense, for instance, of how mandated premarital celibacy has warped everyone’s temperament" is an overly simplistic analysis.

Wow. 2 Pro and 2 con. Time for me to break the tie most strongly in the Pro side. Wonderful, intelligent play, intelligently acted and directed. The playwright explains in a program note that this play was his attempt to understand his parents. So this is amongst a number of works that have helped me to grapple what the heck has happened to our country. This is an issues play that used to be quite common. Pretty Shavian, or Ibsenian, it would seem. I find it odd that it didn't resonate with other viewers. Or should I say listeners. Yes the theater is a medium of dialogue. The stage was dark, the physical action minimal, but the characters had vivid emotional lives that were brought the theme to life.

I saw this play in preview not having any idea what to expect. It seemed to meander for a while but then hit me like a bolt of lightning. I found both the work, the direction, and the acting to be extraordinary. I was not aware of more than two hours passing without an intermission. It did not drag and it was thought-provoking for me. Highly recommended!

My wife and I saw this in previews. Terrific writing and acting, and it did not seem long. The playwright is progressive, but he clearly knows and respects his characters and his audience (also mostly progressive) enough to have them present their views coherently and rooted in their own consistent logic. Thought provoking AND enjoyable. (We also loved "Slave Play" off broadway).

The most painful two (intermissionless - for a reason!) hours I have ever spent in the theater. Not only the subject matter, but the play itself, was utterly appalling. Nothing entertaining about it at all. Isn't that the reason to go to the theatre. The show should be thought-provoking AND ENJOYABLE.

Well, this is the second self-indulgent, rather unrewarding and deeply flawed two hour plus/no intermission play Mr. Green has found far more worthwhile than I. First was Slave Play and now Heroes. I felt trapped at both. Maybe it’s because I didn’t go to Yale.