The critical reaction to Saved was, for the most part, a slaughter. Irving Wardle of The Times (London) said that "The most charitable interpretation of the play would be as a counterblast to theatrical fashion, stripping off the glamour to show that cruelty is disgusting and that domestic naturalism is boring. But the writing itself, with its self-admiring jokes and gloating approach to moments of brutality and erotic humiliation does not support this view ... it amounts to a systematic degradation of the human animal." Herbert Kretzmer of the Daily Express said, "It is peopled with characters who, almost without exception, are foul-mouthed, dirty-minded, illiterate, and barely to be judged on any recognizable human level at all." J. C. Trewin of The Illustrated London News said, "It may not be the feeblest thing I have seen on any stage, but it is certainly the nastiest, and contains...