Gary Lawrence of Bucks Free Press billed Olly's Prison as "long, baffling, and ultimately annoying".

"[4] Frank Rizzo of Variety wrote of the play, "Bond is still exploring violence disguised by domesticity and medicated by social norms.

"[5] The Guardian's Michael Billington stated that the work "shows the weaknesses as well as the strengths of late Bond", praising the "cryptic vigour of Bond's language" but also arguing that what the work "doesn't admit, in contrast to an early masterpiece like Saved, is the possibility of change.

"[6] Ed Siegel of Boston.com said that "his theatrics are much less predictable [than his writing about theater], and despite the trappings of working-class drama, he keeps an audience very much on its toes."

"[7] In World Literature Today, Stephen Grecco wrote that Olly's Prison is "not nearly as dramatically effective" as Saved, criticizing the narrative as improbable.