Chicago Tribune
- Not Recommended
"...One sincerely salutes the ambition of this world premiere. But this static and frequently impenetrable play is a very tough slog for an audience. Demonstrably so; at Monday night’s opening, a lot of rows thinned out after intermission. The confounding thing is that the life of Sor Juana should have made for a compelling play."
Chicago Sun Times
- Recommended
"...Under the direction of Andrea J. Dymond, the large cast of supporting actors do their best to animate the story, with Desmin Borges particularly memorable as Fernandez, the young bishop who desires Sor Juana and ultimately betrays her, along with Kenn E. Head, Ricardo Gutierrez and savvy servant Joseph Anthony Foronda."
Daily Herald
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Despite the best efforts of charismatic actress Lisa Tejero as Sor Juana, the 17th-century Mexican poet, scholar and nun, Nicholas Patricca's disjointed play makes a pretty good history lesson but less than engrossing theater."
Chicago Reader
- Somewhat Recommended
"...The play-within-a-play segments provide some nice swordplay in Andrea J. Dymond's otherwise static staging. But the Don Juan story also shoves to the sidelines one of the most fascinating, relatively unknown women in history while a blowhard man struts and boasts through his tiresome exploits."
Chicago Free Press
- Recommended
"...The ensemble, clearly inspired by Patricca’s ardent and eloquent dialogue, rise to his adulatory occasion, though Dan Kenney’s stentorian Don Juan looks nothing like a handsome heartthrob. The founder of Babes with Blades, Dawn Alden brings her combat skills to the static roles of Lisi and Donna Elvira. Ricardo Gutierrez catches fire as an astronomer who encourages Sor Juana to reach her unfashionable heights."
EpochTimes
- Highly Recommended
"...Sor Juana was considered to be Mexico's best writer, she was also a poet, scholar, feminist, nun and a revolutionary. The plays within the play are there to give us some insight into how she uses her character to express her feelings ( as a woman, she could not during this time). She taught herself to read, despite it being forbidden and in order to continue to learn at the university cut her hair and dressed as boy. This may have been the start of her alter ego character Don Juan- she never married devoting her life to searching for knowledge and reading as well as writing. While this story line does not seem one worthy of 2 plus hours of production, it is! And even more."
Time Out Chicago
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Dymond’s by-the-numbers direction can’t rescue the play from its excesses. Sor Juana, when not addressing the audience, or studying the stars through Galileo’s own telescope, or embroiled in predictable clashes and clinches with her supporters and enemies, intellectually and physically spars with Don Juan—yes, the legendary fictional character who not only serves as her alter ego, conscience and muse, but also plays a starring role in the play she’s writing about him."
ChicagoCritic
- Highly Recommended
"... Set upon the stunning tan columned baroque styles set (design by Keith Pitts), director Andrea J. Dymond uses a most thrilling theatricality to breath life into the 17th feminist hero: Sor Juana."
