Los Angeles Times - Highly Recommended
"...Circle X's production is first-rate; under Paul Willis' sharp direction, the performances snap and crackle even when scenes feel overwritten. At her best, Callaghan has a keen sense of language as an act of aggression, and Daphne and Liza's sly tug of war over the rather idiotic August is like Noel Coward cranked up on ouzo. The show's theatricality rests on a single conceit: Key scenes are played twice, at very different emotional temperatures -- cool and white hot. It's an approach that is both compelling and limiting. For all its heavy breathing, "Lascivious" lacks dramatic velocity, its characters more marooned by feeling than propelled by it."
Variety - Highly Recommended
"...Mitchell hits all the right Hemingwayish, lion-in-winter notes in the tug of war among his women and his dreams. You can easily believe him as catnip to these ladies, while Henry's seductive perfume justifies his whispered "You have stolen my breath." For his/her part, Dietze's Boy is as pleasingly mysterious as the role's conception."
LA Weekly - Highly Recommended
"... Mitchell delivers a forceful performance as an erstwhile idealist wrenched from his refuge of illusions by a crushing self-knowledge. But the real fireworks are in the two women's predatory tug o' war that plays like a Western showdown. Director Paul Willis expertly torques the proceedings to their high-tension dénouement, while Tom Ontiveros' subtle lights and John Zalewski's rumbling sound effectively accent Callaghan's incisive language."
Backstage - Recommended
"...Sheila Callaghan has created a great premise and fascinating characters, her writing intertwining wine and blood and sex as painful but necessary life forces. So why does this production not fully reach its target? It's possible that her framework-likening her modern-day story on a fertile Greek island to myths and legends of the ancients-overly distances the audience from the characters. What could have deeply affected us looks like artifice, even considering the crucial disclaimer at the top of the play that this is "a fundamental impossibility." But all is so very well crafted by those involved, despite this caveat, that this production is well worth seeing."
Stage Scene LA - Highly Recommended
"...Lascivious Something is yet another example of just how world class Los Angeles theater can be. A winner in every department, this is a production that can stand up very well indeed to anything intimate theaters in New York or Chicago have to offer. And that is saying something not at all lascivious."
StageHappenings.com - Highly Recommended
"...this is a brave, new work by an exciting writer and a show that should not be missed unless you're a priggish teetotaler or have a heart condition. Be advised there is full frontal nudity and it is not brief. Given the painstaking detail that went into this period piece and Liza's hippie/tomboyish character, a recommendation is in order: Phelan needs to throw away her razor for the run of this show.
Gorgeous lighting by Tom Ontiveros illuminates the rises and the downstage wine cellar hauntingly, and Dianne K. Graebner's costumes, especially the stunning purple dress, fit the personality of each character perfectly."
Examiner - Not Recommended
"...Perhaps it's the cast or my own preference to stay clear of people who drink too much, but I found all of the characters off-putting. While I won't reveal the ending or the twists, the play makes the most sense to me if I consider it all some kind of fantasy--the imagined reality of a drunken mind or the reality of a sick mind broken into pieces by schizophrenia. Along the way, there is full frontal female nudity, a lesbian affair and some cursing."
CurtainUp - Highly Recommended
"...Callaghan finds the madness in each of her characters. It's not apparent but it's there, as it is in each of us. This gives the play its strength, as each of the characters is strong, too, and the three of them stubbornly fight to defend their turf. August is weak and unlikeable and, as played by Mitchell, imparts an eager buoyancy. Alina Phelan as Liza is harsh, demanding, gawky, and holds the stage. Olivia Henry's Daphne is sly and, in perfectly accented Greek, holds her own against Liza."
