The common belief today is this country is so divided because people won’t talk to, or don’t want to listen, to anyone with opposing views.
Can a stage play help bridge that gap? Well, that's not exactly the goal.
Millennial conservatives — mid-20 to 40-year-olds – are the focus on a play that will be staged in Las Vegas this weekend.
The Heroes of the Fourth Turning examines the lives, politics and values of four graduates of a Catholic college. They all voted for President Donald Trump, but they aren’t what some people might consider stereotypical Trump supporters.
"I think the idea behind the play is the nature of the discourse and what it does to the participants," said Joseph Kucan with A Public Fit theater company, who is staging the play. "What the debate actually does within our personal lives, within our family's lives, how we personally are changed just by engaging in this this sometimes very vitriolic debate."
He said it's an important perspective not seen in theater. He warns that the material is very hot-button. It's promoted in part with:
"Are you a conservative, angry at the notion of 'cancel culture' and missing the Trump years? This play will anger you. Or are you a liberal, disgusted with the very idea of 'America First,' desperately trying to understand your fellow Americans who seem so foreign? This play will anger you."
Each character, Kucan said, represents a different type of conservative, each with a different perspective.
"I think there is, among some conservatives, a hesitancy to be lumped in with Trump and to be lumped in with the sort of extremism that sometimes is being expressed by the liberal side, you know, I think both sides have their outliers, both sides have their extremist perspectives," he said.
Breon Janay will play one of the four characters, Theresa:
It's fun to kind of get into the performative aspect of espousing those beliefs ... I don't want people to sit in the audience and go, actually, Theresa has some good points. That would be the exact opposite of what I want.
A Public Fit is staging the play at Clark County Library this Friday and Saturday.
Joseph Kucan, co-director and co-founder, A Public Fit; Breon Janay, actress, A Public Fit
