Real life mother and daughter take the stage together for the first time in George Bernard Shaw’s moral classic Mrs. Warren’s Profession
Vivie Warren has just graduated from University and has a promising life ahead of her as a lawyer. She wants for nothing and despite rarely seeing her mother throughout her life, she has provided well for her.
Now, Kitty Warren is returning to England to visit her daughter and Vivie wants to get to know her mother and find out why she won’t answer the question of what she does for a living.
Mrs. Warren’s Profession was last seen in the UK in 2022 at the Chichester Festival Theatre with real-life mother and daughter Caroline and Rose Quentin.
Now Imelda Staunton (most recently seen in Hello Dolly at the London Palladium) and real-life daughter Bessie Carter bring George Bernard Shaw’s moral classic to London’s Garrick Theatre.
Written in 1893 but banned until 1902 by a theatre assessor who thought the topic too vulgar to put on stage, Mrs. Warren’s Profession was first publicly performed in London in 1925.
The importance of the piece is that prostitution was not to be seen as morally wrong but as something women could do as a business in order to be self sufficient in a patriarchal society, ruled by men.
Whilst Vivie is disgusted as her mothers choice of career, she is reminded that her very comfortable upbringing was paid for, thanks to her mothers successful businesses abroad. As a woman of that time, career prospects were limited and salaries poorly paid, so in order to succeed, Kitty did what she had to – and she isn’t ashamed of it.
Kitty’s ‘profession’ is hinted at, rather than loudly revealed in the play. This makes sense as she is a successful, eloquent business woman and not a vulgar prostitute but it did make the story a little hard to follow.
Imelda Staunton does a great job alongside Bessie Carter. They are a great pairing and perfect for a play like this. The set design is simple but transformative and the use of an (uncredited) ensemble of victorian prostitutes to create scene changes is cold and eerie but not necessary to tell the story.
At the heart of it, Mrs. Warren’s Profession is a story that needs to be told about the way society has (and still does) treated women. But at nearly two hours (without an interval), I was a little bored and found the pace to be slow. The man sat next to me happily snored his way through the entire show.
Mrs Warren’s Profession plays at the Garrick Theatre until this weekend.
★★★
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