Monsieur D'eon is a Woman at Trap Door Theatre

Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended

"...In truth, "Monsieur D'Eon is a Woman" may lack some of the darker instincts of past Trap Door shows. But there's something incredibly joyous - particularly during Pride Month and particularly in this reactionary national moment - in meeting a historical figure who managed to negotiate so many different roles without allowing any single vocation or identity to solely define her. And unlike Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, the transwoman featured in Doug Wright's "I Am My Own Wife" who survived both the Nazis and the East German Stasi, Chevalier D'Eon mostly manages to get to the finish line without selling out other people."

Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended

"...It's an uncharacteristically unsophisticated play for Trap Door, but Wiesner's sophisticated staging—full of visual and sonic dissonance—hypnotizes with 90 minutes of bracing imagery. As d'Éon, the understated David Lovejoy is a block of noble stability in a world gone haywire."

Around The Town Chicago - Recommended

"...Chevalier Charles d’Eon, spy, soldier, and diplomat, would have been one of the most colorful figures of the late ancien régime even had she not lived as a man for most of her career. In fact, her exposure, from which Mark Brownell’s name draws its name, was involuntary and possibly not reflective of her self-identity. (This production uses feminine pronouns because she went by them at the end of her life, but it’s unknowable what d’Eon would have wanted in modern terminology.)"

Third Coast Review - Recommended

"...The large, diverse cast is uniformly strong. Lovejoy plays d’Eon subtly; her character is a real person with fears and failures mixed with her successes as a soldier, courtier and spy. Sonneville and Bisto also are excellent in their multi-faceted roles."

Picture This Post - Highly Recommended

"...When one considers the perfections of music, costume, sound design, acting, and more as a combination, it's clear that Director Nicole Wiesner's touch is the meta-talent that is power packing this play's charm. For this writer, though, the best of the best is the choreography for which she shares credit with the entire cast. The secret society ensemble moves are a hoot; the break dancing competition that comes later even better."

NewCity Chicago - Somewhat Recommended

"...There is much technically to admire about "d'Eon." The cast hits the punchlines and moves the moves. But afterward, the air outside the theater was cold and there was no more movement and I was hungry for the questions that went unasked. Sometimes it felt like the farce used its competence to avoid any point. The restriction to gender at the end of d'Eon's life had no questions attached to it."