{"id":303138,"date":"2019-10-14T08:13:44","date_gmt":"2019-10-14T12:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?p=303138"},"modified":"2019-10-14T08:13:44","modified_gmt":"2019-10-14T12:13:44","slug":"smash-a-play-about-conservative-catholics-is-a-hot-ticket-in-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2019\/10\/smash-a-play-about-conservative-catholics-is-a-hot-ticket-in-new-york\/","title":{"rendered":"Smash: A play about conservative Catholics is a hot ticket in New York"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u201cI don\u2019t know how anyone \u2014 progressive, conservative, anyone \u2014 walks out of this play without the conviction that somehow, they have to change their life.\u201d<\/em><\/h3>\n
<\/iframe><\/p>\nWho\u2019da thunk? The trailer above gives a taste of the play critics are raving about.<\/p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/10\/13\/theater\/heroes-of-the-fourth-turning-will-arbery.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Details:\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote>\nFor a young playwright in New York, it\u2019s one thing to draw buzz from critics and theater fans. It\u2019s quite another have your dense and boundary-pushing Off Broadway play become a talking point among religious conservatives \u2014 and not because they hate it.<\/p>\nShortly before the opening last week of\u00a0<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk decorated-link\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.playwrightshorizons.org\/shows\/plays\/heroes-fourth-turning\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">\u201cHeroes of the Fourth Turning\u201d<\/a>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0his new play about a group of conservative Roman Catholic millennials arguing all night in a Wyoming backyard about God, love and Donald Trump \u2014 Will Arbery sent the script to Rod Dreher, the prominent\u00a0Orthodox\u00a0Christian blogger.<\/p>\nAnd Dreher responded with an exuberant\u00a0<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk decorated-link\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericanconservative.com\/dreher\/will-arbery-heroes-of-the-fourth-turning\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">5,000-word blog post<\/a>, praising the play\u2019s \u201cdepth of moral vision\u201d and declaring, \u201cI don\u2019t know how anyone \u2014 progressive, conservative, anyone \u2014 walks out of \u2018Heroes of the Fourth Turning\u2019 without the conviction that somehow, they have to change their life.\u201d<\/p>\nThere was also praise in the\u00a0<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk decorated-link\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/catholicherald.co.uk\/commentandblogs\/2019\/10\/01\/an-extraordinary-play-that-challenges-progressives-and-conservatives-alike\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Catholic Herald<\/a>\u00a0and the conservative journal\u00a0<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk decorated-link\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.firstthings.com\/web-exclusives\/2019\/10\/conservative-heroes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">First Things<\/a>, neither normally quoted on theater marquees. All of which left Arbery feeling both happy amazement at, as he put it, \u201cwriting a play\u00a0that Catholics like,\u201d along with wariness of any purely celebratory embrace.<\/p>\n\u201cI would never want this play to breed any complacency on either side,\u201d he said over lunch at a cafe in Park Slope, Brooklyn. \u201cThis was a play that was meant to trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cHeroes of the Fourth Turning,\u201d directed by Danya Taymor and extended through Nov. 10\u00a0at Playwrights Horizons,\u00a0is hardly the first play to be hailed as illuminating our polarized political moment. (Jesse Green, in The New York Times,\u00a0<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk decorated-link\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/10\/07\/theater\/heroes-of-the-fourth-turning-review.html?module=inline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">called it\u00a0<\/a>\u201castonishing\u201d and \u201criveting.\u201d)<\/p>\nBut where most works of theater seen as\u00a0<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk decorated-link\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/03\/26\/theater\/sweat-review-broadway.html?module=inline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">\u201cexplaining Trump\u201d<\/a>\u00a0have explored the economic anxieties of the Rust Belt white working-class, \u201cHeroes\u201d focuses on the distinctive, heady and\u00a0what\u00a0Arbery\u00a0calls the\u00a0\u201csecretive\u201d world of conservative Catholic intellectuals.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s a world Arbery, who recently turned 30, knows well. His father, a literary scholar, is currently the president of\u00a0<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk decorated-link\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/wyomingcatholic.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wyoming Catholic College,\u00a0<\/a>a tiny conservative institution whose mixture of Outward Bound-style wilderness training and Great Books curriculum inspired the play\u2019s fictional Transfiguration College. His mother, a political philosopher,\u00a0also\u00a0teaches there.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/10\/13\/theater\/heroes-of-the-fourth-turning-will-arbery.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Read on<\/a> <\/strong>\u2014 and find out what his parents think of it. Meantime, check out a scene from the play below, in which the characters discuss Trump.<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Scene from Heroes of the Fourth Turning: Trump\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QwzbysLF90Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI don\u2019t know how anyone \u2014 progressive, conservative, anyone \u2014 walks out of this play without the conviction that somehow, they have to change their life.\u201d Who\u2019da thunk? The trailer above gives a taste of the play critics are raving about. Details:\u00a0 For a young playwright in New York, it\u2019s one thing to draw buzz […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":303150,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11510,49],"tags":[12825],"class_list":["post-303138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-theatre","category-this-that","tag-heroes-of-the-fourth-turning"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Smash: A play about conservative Catholics is a hot ticket in New York<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cI don\u2019t know how anyone \u2014 progressive, conservative, anyone \u2014 walks out of this play without the conviction that somehow, they have to change their\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2019\/10\/smash-a-play-about-conservative-catholics-is-a-hot-ticket-in-new-york\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Smash: A play about conservative Catholics is a hot ticket in New York\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cI don\u2019t know how anyone \u2014 progressive, conservative, anyone \u2014 walks out of this play without the conviction that somehow, they have to change their\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2019\/10\/smash-a-play-about-conservative-catholics-is-a-hot-ticket-in-new-york\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-10-14T12:13:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/56\/2019\/10\/Screen-Shot-2019-10-14-at-8.10.09-AM.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"319\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"316\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2019\/10\/smash-a-play-about-conservative-catholics-is-a-hot-ticket-in-new-york\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2019\/10\/smash-a-play-about-conservative-catholics-is-a-hot-ticket-in-new-york\/\",\"name\":\"Smash: A play about conservative Catholics is a hot ticket in New York\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-10-14T12:13:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-10-14T12:13:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970\"},\"description\":\"\u201cI don\u2019t know how anyone \u2014 progressive, conservative, anyone \u2014 walks out of this play without the conviction that somehow, they have to change their\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2019\/10\/smash-a-play-about-conservative-catholics-is-a-hot-ticket-in-new-york\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2019\/10\/smash-a-play-about-conservative-catholics-is-a-hot-ticket-in-new-york\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2019\/10\/smash-a-play-about-conservative-catholics-is-a-hot-ticket-in-new-york\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Smash: A play about conservative Catholics is a hot ticket in New York\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/\",\"name\":\"The Deacon's Bench\",\"description\":\"Where a Roman Catholic deacon ponders the world\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970\",\"name\":\"Deacon Greg Kandra\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Deacon Greg Kandra\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/author\/deacon-greg-kandra\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Smash: A play about conservative Catholics is a hot ticket in New York","description":"\u201cI don\u2019t know how anyone \u2014 progressive, conservative, anyone \u2014 walks out of this play without the conviction that somehow, they have to change their","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2019\/10\/smash-a-play-about-conservative-catholics-is-a-hot-ticket-in-new-york\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Smash: A play about conservative Catholics is a hot ticket in New York","og_description":"\u201cI don\u2019t know how anyone \u2014 progressive, conservative, anyone \u2014 walks out of this play without the conviction that somehow, they have to change their","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2019\/10\/smash-a-play-about-conservative-catholics-is-a-hot-ticket-in-new-york\/","og_site_name":"The Deacon's Bench","article_published_time":"2019-10-14T12:13:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":319,"height":316,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/56\/2019\/10\/Screen-Shot-2019-10-14-at-8.10.09-AM.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Deacon Greg Kandra","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Deacon Greg Kandra","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2019\/10\/smash-a-play-about-conservative-catholics-is-a-hot-ticket-in-new-york\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2019\/10\/smash-a-play-about-conservative-catholics-is-a-hot-ticket-in-new-york\/","name":"Smash: A play about conservative Catholics is a hot ticket in New York","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-10-14T12:13:44+00:00","dateModified":"2019-10-14T12:13:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970"},"description":"\u201cI don\u2019t know how anyone \u2014 progressive, conservative, anyone \u2014 walks out of this play without the conviction that somehow, they have to change their","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2019\/10\/smash-a-play-about-conservative-catholics-is-a-hot-ticket-in-new-york\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2019\/10\/smash-a-play-about-conservative-catholics-is-a-hot-ticket-in-new-york\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2019\/10\/smash-a-play-about-conservative-catholics-is-a-hot-ticket-in-new-york\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Smash: A play about conservative Catholics is a hot ticket in New York"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/","name":"The Deacon's Bench","description":"Where a Roman Catholic deacon ponders the world","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970","name":"Deacon Greg Kandra","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Deacon Greg Kandra"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/author\/deacon-greg-kandra\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}