Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...At a minimum, this most personal of shows, which I first reviewed on Broadway a very long year ago, will likely teach you (or yours) more than you currently know about the Constitution of the United States of America, its pluses and minuses, its tortured clauses and revelatory amendments, its paradoxical history of fragility and its remarkable staying power. You'll even leave with your own copy, as handed out by an usher."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"..."What the Constitution Means to Me" becomes a journey - both intellectual and emotional - from idealism to disenchantment to a type of aspirational realism, embodied by a debate, with a real-world teenage debater no less (a preternaturally composed Jocelyn Shek on press night, Rosdely Ciprian on others), on whether the Constitution should be kept or abolished. To represent a few problems with our democracy, the winner is judged by a single member of the audience."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Constitution (presented in a touring production with Broadway in Chicago, directed by Oliver Butler) is funny as well as sobering, and includes the best-handled audience participation segment ever. The finest moment came when, asked about her vision for herself in 30 years, Jocelyn said, "I'll be president," and a man shouted from the audience, "I hope not the first one!" though he might have meant woman, Asian, or both. You could feel the whole audience smile."
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Heidi Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me is so wonderful—so smart, so moving, so invigorating—that I wish I could describe it in one catchy sentence to help spread the word. But one of the play’s greatest strengths is how stubbornly it resists easy description. Schreck starred as herself in the original New York production (which made her a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize). That Maria Dizzia is now playing Schreck—and also sometimes playing herself—only makes the show even harder to pin down. But Dizzia’s warm yet razor-sharp performance is a selling point all its own. She’s an absolute joy."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...With her roots in high school debating contests, Schreck tells us that she entered these debate contests, not because she had any deep interest in our historic foundational document, but because there were cash prizes for college to be won in victory would cover the cost of a future college education. Interesting how life's challenges can lead us to pursue an activity which lead us to have a moment of epiphany."
Chicagoland Theater Reviews - Highly Recommended
"...“What the Constitution Means to Me” is full of admiration and appreciation for the original document as augmented in later decades by 27 amendments to add freedoms and liberties not specifically designated by the Founding Fathers. Shreck’s play gives the audience a lot to think about, her serious discourses leavened by much humor. It’s an absorbing evening for adult playgoers and would be a terrific field trip for high school students as a superb history lesson that is accessible, informative, and entertaining."
Third Coast Review - Recommended
"...The play acknowledges that although our Constitution is deeply flawed and difficult to amend, it is still an essential element of our democracy. Playwright Schreck, granting solid attention to the 14th Amendment as well as the Ninth, unfortunately ignores the First Amendment, which, in its protections for freedom of speech, press, religion and assembly, is a bulwark against repression."
Storefront Rebellion - Recommended
"...But Schreck, further doing away with the fourth wall, ends on a hopeful note: Each performance closes with Dizzia facing off against an actual high-school debater. (Jocelyn Shek, who performed Friday night, alternates performances with Rosdely Ciprian, a veteran of the Broadway cast.) Arguing the merits of keeping our 230-year-old document versus tearing it up and starting fresh, the kids make a strong case for what the Constitution means to them—and you walk out of the theater feeling a little better about the nation’s future."
Picture This Post - Recommended
"...This year, the Centennial of the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote, is a grand time for this reminder, in this writer's view. But Schreck's script goes much further, delving into quite nuanced terrain of whether and how the US Constitution weathers the test of time. What is an arcane judicial debate over the the likes of the 9th Amendment and the perceived Right to Privacy underlying Roe v. Wade as we enter the theater, morphs into the second skin we wear as we depart. Who knew that the majority of the men on the Supreme Court who argued for Roe v. Wade were having trysts with fertile 20-somethings in the reach of their members underneath those judicial robes? You too will now consider "penumbra" an everyday word in your vocabulary. Schreck's pen describes it as that shadowy place where the US Constitution finds elasticity to accommodate the future still shrouded in murky light."
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Schreck doesn’t have an answer but she does have a play that embodies what theater should always set out to do: start a conversation and engage a contemporary audience. Alongside director Oliver Butler, she has crafted a piece that is not only deeply personal, but is also cognisant of indigenous rights, the deepening of our culture’s understanding of gender and the insidious patriarchal power structures that dominate our lives. “Constitution” is nothing short of a revolutionary play but the true measure of its success will be how we carry the baton and keep the conversation going."
