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Will Arbery
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Will Arbery is an American playwright, screenwriter and TV writer, known for his plays Heroes of the Fourth Turning, Plano, and Evanston Salt Costs Climbing. Heroes of the Fourth Turning was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Arbery was the recipient of the 2020 Whiting Award for Drama.
Early life and education
[edit]Arbery was born in Nashua, New Hampshire, but grew up in Dallas, Texas, the only boy in a family of seven sisters.[1] He attended Cistercian Preparatory School in Irving, Texas. His parents, Glenn and Virginia Arbery, taught at the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture before relocating to Wyoming, where they both taught at Wyoming Catholic College. Arbery's father took over as president of the college in 2016. Arbery received his BA in English and drama from Kenyon College in 2011 and his MFA in writing for the screen and stage from Northwestern University in 2015.[2]
Career
[edit]Plano was first produced by Clubbed Thumb as a part of their 2018 Summerworks season, followed by an off-Broadway run at The Connelly Theater in 2019.[3] The New Yorker described the play as a "David Lynch script performed as screwball comedy";[4] Helen Shaw, writing in Time Out New York, wrote "It's delicious to see a playwright binding genres so confidently (body-double horror and rueful family comedy), but the real pleasure is in how much Plano manages to bend how you perceive reality beyond the proscenium";[5] and Vulture proclaimed that "Plano is a fiercely smart contemporary dream play".[6]
Heroes Of The Fourth Turning
[edit]In October 2019, Arbery received critical acclaim for his play Heroes of the Fourth Turning, which made its world premiere off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons.[7] The play explores a group of young Catholic intellectuals at a college reunion. Arbery's idea for the play "crystallized" after he was dissatisfied with what he considered as shallow media coverage of Trump supporters after the 2016 presidential election.[8] It was named one of the best plays of 2019 by The New York Times[9] and one of the eight pieces of Pop Culture that Defined the Trump Era by Politico.[10]
Heroes of the Fourth Turning went on to win a number of awards, including being named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama.[11] According to Jesse Green of The New York Times, this "astonishing new play", directed "with nerves of steel" by Danya Taymor, "explores the lives and ideas of conservatives with affection, understanding and deep knowledge — if not, ultimately, approval".[12]
According to Sarah Holdren of New York magazine, "Will Arbery's Heroes of the Fourth Turning is so frighteningly well written, it's hard to write about... Arbery's world [is] murky yet lit by lightning, lyrical and scary, brave and terribly gentle. Arbery is a virtuoso of dream language and logic. He's an unostentatious surrealist—a Magritte, not a Dali—rigorous and playful and full of love for his subjects, even when, as in Heroes, those subjects are themselves fraught with confusion, aggression, and fearful, fearsome indoctrination."[13]
Vinson Cunningham of The New Yorker called the play "a formally lovely, subtly horrifying play about the death rattle of ideologies and the thin line between devotion and delusion".[14]
Film and television
[edit]Arbery worked as a writer on the HBO series Succession and has multiple TV and film projects in development, including with HBO, A24, and BBC Film.[15]
Style
[edit]Upon receiving the Whiting Award, the committee said "Despite their wit and charm, Will Arbery's complicated and generous plays are deadly serious... Intellectually audacious, formally sly, he has the courage to let these characters seize the stage with impassioned arguments about morality and meaning. He knows how to make ideas incandescent in time and space and his ear for the rhythms of speech is impeccable, yet he always cracks a window in naturalism, letting a shaft of eeriness in. His writing moves to the beat of multiple metronomes: the rhythm of thought, the counterpoint of competing logics, the heartbeat of human longing."[16]
Works
[edit]- Heroes of the Fourth Turning, 2019, Playwrights Horizons
- Plano, 2018, Clubbed Thumb[17]
- Evanston Salt Costs Climbing, 2018, New Neighborhood[18]
- Corsicana, development at Playwrights Horizons & Ojai Playwrights Conference[19]
- Wheelchair, 3 Hole Press[20]
- You Hateful Things, development at the Public, SPACE on Ryder Farm, and NYTW Dartmouth Residency[21]
Awards and honors
[edit]- 2020: Heroes of the Fourth Turning – Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama[11]
- 2020: Whiting Award for Drama[22]
- 2020: Heroes of the Fourth Turning – Obie Award for Playwriting[23]
- 2020: Heroes of the Fourth Turning – New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play[24]
- 2020: Heroes of the Fourth Turning – Lucille Lortel Award for Best Play[25]
- 2020: Heroes of the Fourth Turning – Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Playwriting Award[26]
- 2019: Tow Playwright in Residence, Playwrights Horizons[27]
- 2017: The Mongoose – Stage Raw Award[28]
- 2016: Edes Foundation Prize[29]
References
[edit]- ^ "Will Arbery". Claire Rosen & Samuel Edes Foundation. Archived from the original on April 27, 2021. Retrieved April 27, 2021.
- ^ "Will Arbery '15 MFA". Northwestern University. Archived from the original on March 1, 2022. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
- ^ Sims, Joey (April 19, 2019). "Review: Plano at the Connelly Theater". Exeunt. Archived from the original on October 19, 2022. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
- ^ Romig, Rollo. "Plano". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on April 27, 2021. Retrieved April 27, 2021.
- ^ Shaw, Helen (April 13, 2019). "Plano". Time Out New York. Archived from the original on October 19, 2022. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
- ^ "Theater Review: The Dizzying Whirl of a Messy Texas Family in Plano". April 13, 2019. Archived from the original on April 27, 2021. Retrieved April 27, 2021.
- ^ "Will Arbery, Playwright of Heroes of the Fourth Turning, Wins 2020 Whiting Award for Drama". Broadway.com. Archived from the original on April 27, 2021. Retrieved April 27, 2021.
- ^ Wallenberg, Christopher (September 8, 2022). "Catholic conservatives who grapple with culture, faith, and politics are people 'Heroes' playwright Will Arbery knows well". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on October 25, 2022. Retrieved November 6, 2022.
- ^ Brantley, Ben; Green, Jesse; Collins-Hughes, Laura; Soloski, Alexis; Vincentelli, Elisabeth (December 3, 2019). "Best Theater of 2019". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 27, 2021. Retrieved April 27, 2021.
- ^ "The Eight Pieces of Pop Culture That Defined the Trump Era". Politico. January 2, 2021. Archived from the original on April 29, 2021. Retrieved April 27, 2021.
- ^ a b "Finalist: Heroes of the Fourth Turning, by Will Arbery". Pulitzer Prizes. Archived from the original on September 28, 2022. Retrieved September 25, 2022.
- ^ Green, Jesse (October 8, 2019). "Review: In 'Heroes of the Fourth Turning,' a Red-State Unicorn". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 27, 2021. Retrieved April 27, 2021.
- ^ Holdren, Sara (October 7, 2019). "Theater Review: Deep in Red America with Heroes of the Fourth Turning". Vulture. Archived from the original on April 27, 2021. Retrieved April 27, 2021.
- ^ Cunningham, Vinson (October 10, 2019). "A Play About the Nuances of Conservatism in the Trump Era". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on April 14, 2021. Retrieved April 27, 2021.
- ^ "Playwright & Filmmaker". Will Arbery. Archived from the original on October 19, 2022. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
- ^ "Will Arbery". Whiting Awards. Archived from the original on December 1, 2020. Retrieved April 27, 2021.
- ^ Collins-Hughes, Laura (April 14, 2019). "Review: The Women of 'Plano' Are All About Men". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 2, 2023. Retrieved January 16, 2023 – via NYTimes.com.
- ^ Soloski, Alexis (November 17, 2022). "Review: In 'Evanston Salt Costs Climbing,' Co-Workers Weather the Storm". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 2, 2023. Retrieved January 2, 2023 – via NYTimes.com.
- ^ Green, Jesse (June 23, 2022). "'Corsicana' Review: Four Lost Hearts in the Heart of Texas". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 2, 2023. Retrieved January 2, 2023 – via NYTimes.com.
- ^ Yang, Emily (April 21, 2019). "Will Arbery's 'Wheelchair' depicts a dead end in gentrifying NYC". The Michigan Daily. Archived from the original on January 2, 2023. Retrieved January 16, 2023.
- ^ "You Hateful Things | New Play Exchange". newplayexchange.org. Archived from the original on January 2, 2023. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
- ^ Arbery, Will (March 25, 2020). "Will Arbery, Drama". Archived from the original on October 25, 2022. Retrieved October 25, 2022.
- ^ Paulson, Michael (July 15, 2020). "Obies Honor 'A Strange Loop' and 'Heroes of the Fourth Turning'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 25, 2022. Retrieved October 25, 2022 – via NYTimes.com.
- ^ Gans, Andrew (April 16, 2020). "Heroes of the Fourth Turning and A Strange Loop Named Winners of 2020 New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards". Playbill. Retrieved November 6, 2022.
- ^ "Octet and Heroes of the Fourth Turning Lead 2020 Lucille Lortel Award Winners | Playbill". Archived from the original on November 12, 2022. Retrieved October 25, 2022.
- ^ "How Theatre Award Ceremonies Are Handling the Coronavirus Shutdown | Playbill". Archived from the original on October 25, 2022. Retrieved October 25, 2022.
- ^ "Will Arbery's Heroes of the Fourth Turning Finds Its Off-Broadway Cast | Playbill". Archived from the original on October 25, 2022. Retrieved October 25, 2022.
- ^ "Will Arbery". July 29, 2022. Archived from the original on October 25, 2022. Retrieved October 25, 2022.
- ^ "Will Arbery". Claire Rosen & Samuel Edes Foundation. Archived from the original on October 19, 2022. Retrieved November 6, 2022.
Will Arbery
View on Grokipediafrom Grokipedia
Early life and family background
Upbringing in a conservative Catholic household
Will Arbery was born on October 31, 1992, in Nashua, New Hampshire, but grew up primarily in Dallas, Texas, in a devout Catholic family that emphasized conservative values.[2][8] The family's religious commitment shaped his early worldview, fostering an environment where Catholic doctrine and intellectual conservatism were central.[9][10] Arbery attended Catholic schools during his childhood, including eight years at Cistercian Preparatory School, an all-boys institution in Irving, Texas, operated by Hungarian monks and focused on rigorous classical education infused with Catholic principles.[11][12] This immersion provided consistent exposure to traditional Catholic teachings, reinforcing fidelity to Church authority and moral orthodoxy amid broader cultural shifts.[13][14] From a young age, the household dynamics introduced Arbery to passionate, nuanced debates on faith, politics, and culture, cultivating his ability to articulate conservative perspectives.[15][16] These discussions, often led by academically inclined figures modeling poetic and intellectually robust conservatism, honed his early familiarity with the tensions between religious conviction and secular society.[17][18]Parental and sibling influences
Will Arbery grew up as the only son among eight siblings, with seven sisters, positioning him as the second-youngest child in a large family environment shaped by intellectually rigorous parental guidance.[19][20] His parents, Glenn and Virginia Arbery, both held doctorates—Glenn in literature and Virginia in theology—from the University of Dallas, fostering a household centered on academic depth and discourse.[13] This structure placed Arbery often in the role of observer during family interactions, absorbing the dynamics of a intellectually conservative milieu led by educator-parents.[19] Glenn Arbery, as president of Wyoming Catholic College from 2016 to 2023, exemplified a commitment to classical humanities education, which directly influenced his son's exposure to structured intellectual conservatism from an early age.[3][21] His leadership role, following prior teaching at the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, emphasized rigorous literary and philosophical engagement, providing Arbery with a model of principled academic stewardship that prioritized foundational Western thought over contemporary trends.[22] Virginia Arbery, teaching political philosophy and science, contributed to family discussions infused with poetic and political analysis, cultivating in her children, including Will, a habit of critical reasoning rooted in conservative principles.[4][23] Her background as a Richard Weaver Fellow reinforced an environment where abstract ideas were debated concretely, shaping Arbery's early personal framework for navigating ideological tensions through familial dialogue rather than external consensus.[4] Arbery's relationships with his seven sisters, marked by real-life variances such as health challenges—including one sister's Down syndrome and another's prolonged illness—instilled a grounded understanding of familial interdependence and resilience, distinct from abstract ideals.[24][25][26] These sibling dynamics, observed amid parental intellectualism, honed his perspective on human complexity within a conservative household, emphasizing empirical family realities as a basis for personal growth.[19]Education
Academic formation and early creative pursuits
Arbery earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and drama from Kenyon College in 2011.[1] During his undergraduate years, he initially pursued acting alongside writing in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, before shifting toward playwriting in his final stages of study.[2] He subsequently completed a Master of Fine Arts in Writing for the Screen and Stage at Northwestern University in 2015.[27] The program's curriculum, emphasizing dramatic structure and narrative techniques, enabled Arbery to cultivate skills in composing dialogue-rich scripts that prioritize intellectual exchange and thematic depth.[28] These academic experiences marked Arbery's transition from exploratory writing to structured dramatic composition, where his early play drafts began incorporating rigorous debate on philosophical and cultural matters, distinct from the dominant progressive viewpoints often prevalent in arts education environments.[29]Playwriting career
Breakthrough with early plays
Arbery's play Plano marked his initial foray into professional production, premiering at Clubbed Thumb's Summerworks festival in June 2018 before an Off-Broadway run at the Connelly Theater from April 8 to May 11, 2019, produced by The New Group.[30][31] The work centers on three sisters confronting a series of bizarre plagues amid familial tensions, drawing directly from Arbery's experiences with his seven sisters and evoking the chaotic dynamics of a Texas household.[15] Critics noted its surreal, dialogue-heavy structure, which blends humor with psychological unease to probe sibling rivalries and inherited traumas.[32] Similarly, Evanston Salt Costs Climbing debuted as a world premiere from August 30 to September 15, 2018, presented by White Heron Theatre Company and New Neighborhood in Los Angeles.[33] The play follows salt truck drivers Peter and Basil, alongside public works administrator Jane Maiworm, as they navigate escalating winter severity in Evanston, Illinois, through banter and storytelling that reveal underlying vulnerabilities.[34] It employs intimate, character-driven exchanges to examine endurance amid environmental and existential pressures, foreshadowing Arbery's interest in ordinary lives strained by larger forces.[15] These productions garnered early attention for Arbery's ability to infuse personal, faith-inflected perspectives—rooted in his conservative Catholic upbringing—with universal conflicts, establishing a reputation for taut, revelatory narratives that prioritize emotional authenticity over didacticism.[15] Reviews highlighted the plays' unconventional weirdness and their departure from conventional realism, positioning Arbery as an emerging voice in American theater ahead of wider acclaim.[32]Heroes of the Fourth Turning
Heroes of the Fourth Turning premiered Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons on September 13, 2019, directed by Danya Taymor.[35] The play is set on a chilly night in Wyoming, where four young alumni of a small Catholic college gather in a backyard to celebrate the induction of their former professor as the institution's new president.[35] Their conversations unfold amid bottles of wine and rifles, delving into topics of faith, politics, and perceived cultural decline in contemporary America.[36] The drama draws directly from Arbery's experiences in conservative Catholic environments, particularly inspired by gatherings at Wyoming Catholic College, where his father Glenn Arbery served as president from 2016 to 2023.[14] This connection lends authenticity to the characters' portrayals as post-liberal conservatives grappling with secular challenges to traditional values.[14] The college itself mirrors the play's fictional setting, emphasizing real-world dynamics among young intellectuals committed to orthodox Catholicism.[14] Structured as a single-act play, Heroes of the Fourth Turning centers on debates informed by the Strauss-Howe generational theory, which describes historical cycles culminating in a "fourth turning" of crisis and renewal.[37] The characters articulate unfiltered defenses of pro-life stances, critiques of progressive ideology, and calls for spiritual heroism in an era of institutional decay.[17] It was named a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.[35]Subsequent stage works
Arbery's play Corsicana premiered at Playwrights Horizons in New York City on June 14, 2022, following an extension of its initial run, and concluded on July 17, 2022.[38] Set in the titular small Texas city, the work centers on siblings Ginny, a woman with Down syndrome, and her half-brother Christopher, who grapple with grief after their mother's death, exploring themes of familial bonds, artistic creation, privacy, and communal redemption amid personal unmooring.[39] Dedicated to Arbery's older sister Julia, who has Down syndrome, the play draws from the playwright's experiences growing up in Texas, incorporating elements of vulnerability, creative expression, and interpersonal gifts to depict moral intricacies within a family context rather than overt political confrontation.[40][25] Building on the critical attention from Heroes of the Fourth Turning, Corsicana marked Arbery's return to Off-Broadway with a more intimate lens on Texas-rooted dynamics, emphasizing redemption through art and sibling relationships over ideological debate, while maintaining the nuanced portrayal of human complexity evident in his earlier familial narratives.[41] Subsequent productions and writings have extended this trajectory, incorporating regional theater engagements and personal stories inflected by Arbery's Wyoming and Texas upbringing, focusing on ethical depth in everyday moral dilemmas without reductive characterizations.[1]Television and screenwriting
Contributions to Succession
Arbery served as a staff writer and co-producer for the fourth and final season of HBO's Succession, which aired in 2023.[9][42] He had previously contributed to season three as a consultant and co-writer before being invited back as a full writer for the concluding season by showrunner Jesse Armstrong.[9] In season four, Arbery co-wrote episode six, titled "Living+", alongside Georgia Pritchett, which depicted the Roy siblings' pitch for a branded condominium development amid escalating corporate and familial tensions.[43] This episode highlighted the interplay of personal ambitions and inherited power within the dysfunctional Roy family, showcasing Arbery's facility for dialogue-driven scenes of conflict resolution and betrayal in high-stakes settings.[43][42] For "Living+", Arbery and Pritchett received the Writers Guild of America Award for Episodic Drama at the 2024 ceremony, recognizing the episode's taut scripting amid the season's broader narrative of empire collapse.[44][45] Arbery's involvement marked a pivotal expansion from theater to serialized prestige television, where his honed ability to navigate ensemble intrigue translated to the series' dissection of media mogul rivalries and succession battles.[42][9]Other film and TV projects
Arbery wrote the pilot script for the FX drama series Seven Sisters, ordered on March 12, 2025, which draws from his experience growing up with seven sisters and explores multi-sibling family dynamics.[46][47] The project, executive produced by Arbery alongside director Sean Durkin and producer Garrett Basch, features Elizabeth Olsen in the lead role, with additional casting including Odessa Young, Zoë Winters, Cristin Milioti, Anthony Edwards, and J. Smith-Cameron.[48][49] Filming for the pilot occurred in Vancouver from May 14 to June 2, 2025.[50] Beyond Seven Sisters, Arbery has television projects in development with A24, Fifth Season, and HBO, reflecting his shift toward original screen narratives outside episodic writing.[47] These efforts build on his playwriting roots, with potential for adapting works like Plano or Corsicana into film formats, though no confirmed adaptations have been announced as of October 2025.[1] Arbery's early filmmaking includes four short films produced during his time at Northwestern University, utilizing campus equipment for experimental pieces.[2] One such short, Your Resources (2016), featured his sister Julia Arbery and incorporated sci-fi elements shot at their parents' home, signaling his interest in blending personal family stories with visual storytelling.[25]Themes and artistic style
Catholic faith and family dynamics
Arbery was raised in a devout Catholic family, with his father, Glenn Arbery, serving as president of Wyoming Catholic College and a literary scholar, and his mother, Virginia Arbery, as a professor there specializing in humanities.[10][13] The family, which includes Arbery and his seven sisters, emphasized intellectual rigor alongside orthodox faith, with discussions of poetry, theology, and doctrine shaping daily life from his early years in Nashua, New Hampshire, and later in Texas and Wyoming.[2][15] This environment, marked by attendance at an all-boys Catholic high school and exposure to conservative Catholic academia, provided an empirical foundation for Arbery's depictions of faith as a dynamic, lived commitment rather than a static backdrop.[20] In Arbery's oeuvre, orthodox Catholicism emerges as a core motif, portrayed through characters who confront doctrinal tenets—such as the sanctity of life and sacramental grace—against the backdrop of societal fragmentation, drawn from his intimate observation of familial and communal Catholic practice.[17] These representations emphasize internal struggles and aspirations within the faith, avoiding reductive caricatures by grounding them in the nuanced, passionate orthodoxy modeled by his parents, whom Arbery has described as "extremely articulate, brilliant, poetic thinkers" deeply committed to Catholicism.[15][16] Critics have noted this authenticity stems from Arbery's biographical proximity to "restless Catholics" navigating belief amid modern pressures, privileging causal realities of doctrinal adherence over stylized abstraction.[17][22] Family dynamics recur as a microcosm for broader existential tensions in Arbery's works, with sibling relationships and parental influences depicted as arenas of candid confrontation and enduring loyalty, reflecting his own large family's intellectual and emotional texture.[51][19] Figures like sisters embody articulate exchanges on personal and moral grounds, countering prevalent media portrayals of religious households as inherently stifling by illustrating them as sites of vigorous debate and mutual support rooted in shared upbringing.[13] Arbery's drawing from real sibling experiences—such as those involving disability and loss—underscores kinship as a causal force for resilience, informed by his position as second-youngest in a brood where faith intertwined with familial roles to foster depth over discord.[25][2] This approach highlights empirical family bonds as generative of complexity, challenging assumptions of repression through evidence of lived, doctrinally anchored vitality.[24]Engagement with political and cultural conservatism
In Heroes of the Fourth Turning (2019), Arbery portrays conservative characters articulating unflinching critiques of abortion as a form of genocide and moral apostasy, framing opposition to it as a principled duty rather than visceral hatred, as seen in Teresa's advocacy for a Schmittian confrontation with abortion advocates.[22] Similarly, the play depicts rejections of identity politics through characters who challenge progressive emphases on gender, race, and choice as distractions from deeper ethical realities, with Teresa countering liberal labels by mirroring them back—"You call us racist, we’ll call you racist"—to expose their reductive nature.[52] Critiques of secularism emerge as warnings of an existential spiritual war against a godless majority intent on eradicating traditional values, invoking strategies like the Benedict Option for cultural preservation.[52][22] Arbery's dialogues employ causal reasoning grounded in historical and empirical observations, such as references to Margaret Sanger's eugenics legacy to substantiate claims of progressive ideologies fostering narcissism and ethical blindness, privileging evidence of societal erosion over emotive consensus.[22] Characters apply Strauss-Howe generational theory's "fourth turning" framework to argue that current crises demand heroic, principle-based responses to civilizational decline, linking policy failures—like unchecked secular hedonism—to tangible cultural fragmentation rather than accepting normalized narratives of inevitable progress.[53][22] This approach underscores conservative positions as derived from foundational logic, including assertions that identity frameworks obscure moral absolutes, with Teresa decrying a "throbbing mass of genderless narcissists" as symptomatic of broader decay.[53] By centering authentic, conflicted conservative voices in a medium dominated by left-leaning conventions, Arbery subverts expectations of caricatured right-wing portrayals, allowing substantive ideological arguments to unfold through humanized figures grappling with internal tensions, such as between militant engagement and empathetic retreat.[22] This staging fosters an environment for truth-seeking dialogue, where conservative causal claims against progressive orthodoxies stand on their merits, unmitigated by authorial condemnation or simplification.[52][53]Reception and controversies
Critical praise for authenticity
Critics have lauded Will Arbery's Heroes of the Fourth Turning (2019) for its unflinching realism in depicting conservative Catholic intellectuals, with Rod Dreher in The American Conservative describing it as a "stunning Off Broadway play about Catholic conservatives" that "captures the restless spirits of the age of culture war" and provides profound insight into young conservatives' lives in post-Christian America.[22] Dreher emphasized the play's depth, noting it as "deeply informed about the lives and thoughts of young Catholic conservatives" and superior to any contemporary novel, film, or play in illustrating the era's cultural conflicts, predicting that "decades from now, if social historians wonder what it was like to be an American conservative in this tumultuous era, they will consult Will Arbery’s breathtaking new play" for historical authenticity.[22] The play's reception, including its 2020 Obie Award for Playwriting and Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, reflected acclaim for this insider realism, as Arbery drew from his upbringing in conservative Catholic circles to portray characters with "affection, understanding and deep knowledge," avoiding caricature in favor of troubled, articulate figures whose struggles evoke sympathy.[35] [54] Ben Brantley of The New York Times highlighted an "aura of absolute authenticity" in the work, crediting Arbery's empathetic complexity for humanizing conservatives in ways that resonate with broader political divides, including Trump-era tensions over ideology and faith.[54] In a 2025 essay, Scott McLemee in Inside Higher Ed affirmed the play's enduring cultural impact, praising its "eavesdropping on real people" quality and value as an insider perspective on conservatism—rooted in Arbery's family ties to institutions like Wyoming Catholic College—that challenges media-driven stereotypes with nuanced depictions of ideological bonds and personal turmoil.[55] McLemee noted the characters' realistic navigation of culture-war themes, from Great Books-inspired theology to ambivalent Trump reflections, underscoring the play's relevance amid ongoing conservative intellectual currents.[55]Criticisms from progressive perspectives
Some reviewers from left-leaning theater publications have faulted Will Arbery's Heroes of the Fourth Turning (2019) for humanizing conservative Catholic characters without explicitly denouncing their expressed views on topics such as abortion, immigration, and cultural decline. A October 8, 2023, review in Intermission Magazine, a Canadian outlet focused on progressive-leaning arts discourse, labeled the play a "breeding ground for hate" and a "provocative diatribe on conservatism," citing its inclusion of "unflinchingly hateful, right-wing rhetoric" delivered by characters who articulate traditionalist positions with conviction rather than caricature.[56] This critique highlights an expectation in certain progressive circles for dramatic works to frame conservative ideologies as morally indictable, interpreting the play's refusal to pathologize its protagonists as tacit endorsement. The Intermission piece, for instance, questions the sympathy extended to figures who are portrayed as "wrong, and scared, and angry" but not irredeemably malevolent, suggesting such nuance risks normalizing viewpoints deemed incompatible with liberal norms.[56] Similar unease surfaced in previews anticipating "prickly" backlash from progressive audiences uncomfortable with authentic, non-satirical depictions of right-wing thought.[57] These objections, often rooted in outlets exhibiting systemic ideological tilt toward viewing traditionalism through a lens of inherent threat, underscore a discomfort with representations that prioritize causal depth—such as faith-driven motivations and familial bonds—over reductive condemnation. Arbery's drawing from his own upbringing in a conservative Catholic household in Texas lends empirical grounding to the characters' perspectives, challenging media conventions that attribute such beliefs to bigotry absent contextual reasoning.[10] In practice, this authenticity has exposed biases in critical discourse, where sympathetic portrayals of non-progressive worldviews provoke accusations of complicity despite the play's Pulitzer finalist status and cross-ideological acclaim for its verisimilitude.[54]Complete works
List of plays
- Evanston Salt Costs Climbing (world premiere August 2018, White Heron Theatre Company/New Neighborhood): A surreal family drama confronting climate apocalypse through humor, warmth, and interpersonal tensions amid existential fears.[58][59]
- Plano (world premiere Summerworks Festival 2018, Clubbed Thumb at The Connelly Theater): Three sisters in Plano, Texas, navigate grief, manifestation, and fragmented realities in a series of incantatory vignettes.[60][61]
- Heroes of the Fourth Turning (world premiere October 7, 2019, Playwrights Horizons): Four young Catholic conservatives reunite after a party, engaging in heated discussions on faith, politics, and personal convictions in Wyoming.[62][35]
- Corsicana (world premiere June 2, 2022, Playwrights Horizons): A Texas family explores caregiving dynamics, perceptual realities, and sibling bonds amid quiet existential debates.[63][39]