Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended

"... Jackson and set designer Dennis Mae put us in the middle of this battle of wills in the tiny Side Studio space, and there are some early bruising physical encounters (choreographed by Greg Poljacik) that deliver visceral jolts. But Wagner's script, which runs nearly two hours without an intermission, hammers away at the same boldface talking points about the corrosive effects of revenge too often. Still, there are a few moments — such as Stetko's growing Lenny-like attachment to a rabbit, and the sorrowful excavation of the women he slaughtered — that send frissons of sympathy and horror down our spines."
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Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended

"...Playwright Colleen Wagner disregards credibility in her 1995 allegorical play, a problem director Evan Jackson exacerbates with his inattentive staging for Idle Muse. Jackson keeps his two-person cast at an unvarying level of overwrought intensity for 90 minutes, as though Wagner's facile philosophical musings about war and human nature were written entirely in italics."
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Windy City Times - Somewhat Recommended

"...Colleen Wagner has written more of a Platonic dialogue than a play, as we define that term. We are not told our locale (hints point to Bosnia, though Stetko exhibits American preferences in pop-music and beer), nor how Mejra, his dubious benefactor, arranged his release into her custody. Early on, we are given unmistakable clues to her purpose in torturing him, so suspense is clearly not Wagner's goal. Likewise undisclosed is whether this unlikely pair's lengthy discussions—of topics such as the nature of love and hate, self-preservation vs. individual responsibility, and the value/futility of vengeance—occur over a period of weeks, months or years before arriving at their wholly-foreseeable conclusion."
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Centerstage - Somewhat Recommended

"...Evan Jackson’s direction of Wagner’s script plods along at a fairly dull pace as the characters argue in circles. There are some powerful emotional moments, but they come more from the subject matter than any specific dramatic illumination of that subject matter."
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Stage and Cinema - Not Recommended

"... The best work in The Monument comes from set designer Dennis Mae, who makes excellent use of The Side Project Theatre’s tiny space. The stage is coated with mulch, which serves to pad the brawls while also becoming dirt where characters dig up stubborn rocks, budding plants and corpses. The space beneath the audience’s seats is also used to store hidden objects, as if the viewers are complicit in concealing them."
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