"Although Marianne Elliott's modern-dress production of Middleton's 1621 play is wittily inventive, I found myself wishing it owed more to Medici Florence than to Fellini's Rome: La Dolce Vita has become a lazy reference point for these Italianate Jacobean plays..although it is a decorative and enjoyable evening"
Michael Billington for The Guardian

"Marianne Elliott's production of this 1621 play by Thomas Middleton culminates in a gorgeous, debauched masked ball....The play starts slowly, and it’s only after about an hour that it really comes to life. Even when it does, the dazzle of the piece exceeds its emotional interest."
Henry Hitchings for The Evening Standard

"Admirably lucid revival ."
Benedict Nightingale for The Times

"You don't have to dress this rarely seen lust-fest in modern garb to make its feminist points, but Marianne Elliott's magnificent and disturbing National Theatre revival does benefit from updating the Italian Renaissance to a period mishmash of New Look couture, dead cool jazz and punk primitivism."
Michael Coveney for The Independent

"The best thing about this three-hour romp through greed and lust and female bitching is the finale...After three hours you feel you have deserved that climax almost as much as the sinners."
Quentin Letts for The Daily Mail

"A staging that wraps its inky fingers around you and holds you, spellbound."
Sarah Hemming for Financial Times

"Thrilling production ."
Charles Spencer for Daily Telegraph

External links to full reviews from popular press
Guardian - Standard - Mail - Financial Times - Independent - Times - Telegraph