Monticello presented by Aurora Theatre Works at St. Bonaventure Oratory

Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended

"...What does Poe have to do with any of this? Not much, and it doesn't help that the script is peppered with jokey references to his future classics like "The Raven." Geoghegan means his play as a call to action in another age of crisis but does his cause no favors by throwing together two important historical figures for an imaginary chat. The most affecting moment by far comes at the very end, when Sally Hemings reads the Declaration in full."

Windy City Times - Recommended

"...This last theme ( Did I mention the vodou-conjured specter of Haitian rebel Toussaint L'Ouverture? ) may explain the inclusion of many familiar faces from Congo Square Theater Company in this Aurora Theater Works inaugural production. Under the direction of Anthony Irons, a hard-working cast led by Marty Lodge as the philosophical Jefferson and Jeff Kurysz as the bewildered Poe maintain a sobriety lending a veneer of plausibility to Geoghegan's speculative hypotheses, despite anachronisms like the prevalence of portable writing instruments. What the results may lack in theatrical craft, however, they nevertheless redeem in the questions they raise about the truths we complacently claim to hold self-evident."

Third Coast Review - Somewhat Recommended

"...What if Edgar Allen Poe, a new student and earnest young writer at the University of Virginia, went to Monticello in July 1826 to help Thomas Jefferson with an important task. It could have happened, says playwright Thomas Geoghegan, who conjures this event in his play Monticello, directed by Anthony Irons."