Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...It is indeed quite jolly to watch these towering egos argue with one another with such force - especially since Carter makes it very clear that you are also watching three different historical eras in vigorous debate about matters political and philosophical. None of the men has any spiritual certainty about them - I mean, who does? - but they're all bold-faced advice columnists when it comes to prescribing the path to redemption for anyone other than themselves."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...The result is the very best production of Northlight Theatre's current season, a philosophical debate bristling with mischief, mania, hubris and flamboyance, penned by a writer (best known for his work on HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher," and as the producer of the first 1,100 episodes of Maher's "Politically Incorrect") with a grand gift for making profound intellectual arguments at once accessible and hugely entertaining. Kimberly Senior's animated direction and pitch-perfect casting also could not be more ideal."
Daily Herald - Recommended
"...A solid, albeit dense piece of theater directed with brio by Kimberly Senior for Northlight Theatre, "Discord" is a witty, giddily cerebral exercise in which the titular characters meet in the afterlife to debate the nature of God, religion, philosophy, politics, social justice, art and literature."
Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...The 90-minute triologue is meant to be witty and profound yet plays out as a festival of gimmicks-a cutesy, down-market No Exit for Christians, processed through currently fashionable theatrical modes and reductive characterizations. In Kimberly Senior's staging, only Nathan Hosner comes out all right as a pensive, dignified Jefferson. Jeff Parker's performance is constrained by Carter's apparent disdain for Dickens, while Mark Montgomery plays Tolstoy, mystifyingly, as Popeye and Bluto's love child."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...This production is extremely well done under director Kimberly Senior, the Chicago-based veteran who has achieved a deserved national reputation. Actors Nathan Hosner, Jeff Parker and Mark Montgomery are dead-ringers respectively for Jefferson, Dickens and Tolstoy as they appeared in their late-youthful primes ( with assists from costume designer Nan Zabriskie and uncredited wig/makeup masters ). As delineated by Carter, the personalities of the characters are effective but rather simplistic with Jefferson as the self-effacing diplomat and compromiser, Dickens as an egocentric star ( he was an actor ) and Tolstoy as blustery and argumentative."
ChicagoCritic - Somewhat Recommended
"...The most interesting aspect of the play is Dickens's presence. Hosner gives a remarkably realistic performance as Jefferson, the quietest of the founders, and Montgomery gives a comically boisterous and not remotely pacifistic performance as Tolstoy (who really did speak English), but Jeff Parker's Dickens is an excited mess of nerves and contradictions. On the surface, the comparison of Dickens, who never sought or wielded any real power, to people who owned hundreds of other people and encouraged whole nations to suffer and die for their ideals is ridiculous. But while Jefferson and Tolstoy's cowardly cynicism was impersonal and indirect, Dickens's attempts to destroy his wife and grown children's reputations to rehabilitate his own were personal and malicious."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Northlight Theatre's production of "The Gospel according to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord" is one of the more interesting plays I've seen in a while. While I've seen other plays that put unlikely people together for a conversation, the conversations haven't been anywhere near as intelligent."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...And most important of all, Carter is too smart of a playwright to let his characters off the hook. Historical dramas far too often fall victim to idolatry. These individuals were so brilliant and wonderful, the logic goes, that not only do they deserve to be characters in their own plays/movies/TV series"
Chicagoland Theater Reviews - Highly Recommended
"..."Discord" is a gutsy choice for the Northlight. The acting is splendid and the script is literate and challenging, but the play is not a sitcom filled with easy laughs. Still, Carter's language is always accessible and he explores matters that should touch every thinking spectator. Each actor has crawled inside the skin of his character, suggesting that much research went into preparation for the roles. And Kimberly Senior and her design colleagues have made their invaluable contributions to make this one of a kind drama work so triumphantly."
Third Coast Review - Recommended
"...Discord may be an intellectual game, but it's a delightful and thought-provoking one. Its serious overtones and philosophical undercurrents make it a worthwhile 90 minutes of your time and a trip to Skokie."
NewCity Chicago - Recommended
"...While the ending is not entirely satisfying, the show as a whole is burnished to a mellow, thoughtful glow by the playwright's decades of research and obvious compassion for his magnificently flawed characters. It's interesting that Carter, a highly successful television writer, has authored this ultimate anti-TV drama, one without a vulgar or stupid moment. "Discord" represents a kind of career antithesis for him, and a movement to a higher artistic level."
