"The surprises of this ambitiously conceived, modestly realized work are pretty much over once you’ve accepted its fanciful premise...Even when they’re over-emoting these characters seem to be mechanically ticking off boxes on a purgatory registration form, about not only their theories of Jesus but also their own hypocrisies...There’s only so much variation that can be wrung on the common knowledge-confirming, music-hall characterizations of these men."
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"Carter's maddeningly dull 'Discord' is the play a college kid writes after reading 'No Exit' and wondering if people get—like really get—that faith is tricky...After a few confessions, delivered with maximum self-importance, the dead celebs pick up notepads and, as projected stage directions inform us, ‘write.’ What are they writing?...It's unclear, but at least it points to the end of the show: salvation and release, for them and for us."
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"Has a title that lasts longer than its interest on stage...'Discord' unfolds in all the ways you’d expect it to, without ever providing a compelling explanation for what we’re all doing in a theater together...Each man here feels oversimplified to a central fixation...This apologia for the Problematic Great White Dead Dude is a turgid and unnecessary one...It takes more than a couple of Wikipedia articles to make a play."
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"There's no shortage of cerebral fodder. Unfortunately, however, Carter has forgotten to infuse his windy discourse with sufficient drama. As a result, it mostly feels like a clever thesis written by an ambitious graduate student...The playwright's extensive comedy background is on ample display during the first part of the play...Despite more than a few examples in which the dialogue truly stimulates, ‘Discord’ sags under its own intellectual weight."
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"Carter tempers his heady subject matter with lowbrow humor...Audiences looking for a debate of acid wit will be disappointed, especially as the play devolves into a group therapy session...Their soul-searching monologues are earnest and sincerely delivered by the performers, but they have the effect of making us feel like we're also in purgatory...Senior keeps the pain minimal with snappy pacing and straightforward design."
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"Given Carter's day job, working for one of television's most polarizing figures, the flatness of the enterprise is remarkable. There isn't a single witty or memorable line in the script. Kimberly Senior's production at least keeps things moving...Carter's script does little for any of its three protagonists, reducing them instead to a set of Wikipedia-ready character traits...Why throw these three figures together unless you can make us see them in a new light?"
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"A play that attempts to merge religious argument and personal confessionals with outlandishly over-the-top performances opened tonight in a faltering and heavy-handed production...The whole thing comes off rather like a debate among unruly middle school students...This clumsily rendered production only manages to emphasize the play's inherent flaws, in which the big questions it poses are addressed only superficially in favor of way too much posturing and clowning."
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"'Discord' is, when pared downed to its existential essence, nothing more than the title implies...There are laughs aplenty amidst the often stimulating haranguing, especially during the first half...The most highly charged and emotional segments deal with the contradictions in these men's lives and lifestyles that often decry their moral and ethical convictions...The play gets just a tad too dense and less purposefully epigrammatic...A visit with three such egotistical souls has much to offer."
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