[8] The play is described by critic Robert Brustein as a "lusty antidote to all forms of Bardolatry, including the perverse and benighted kind that considers the bard a beard".

He describes it as "an extended satiric sketch worthy of Monty Python", but suggests that some of the comic faux-Elizabethan language "fails to pass the test of grammar or scansion".

[10] Katherine Scheil emphasises its bawdy aspects, as Anne discovers Will's seedy sex-life, unleashing her own desire to explore "wild and stormy expanses of uncharted filth".

[1] According to James Fisher, Freed demonstrates her own affinity with Shakespeare: Freed—a similarly adept wordsmith—explores the very nature of language itself and the intangible font of creative achievement.

[11] William S. Niederkorn, in his article on the play for The New York Times quoted Freed: "There's a lot in The Beard of Avon that has to do with my own completely insane love affair with actors and theater...