REVIEW: Mrs Warren’s Profession by Bernard Shaw, presented by Shaw2020 at Jack Studio Theatre 16– 20 July

'Too many men spoil the brothel' ★★★   

Written in 1893 by George Bernard Shaw, one of the leading dramatists of his generation, Mrs Warren’s Profession was considered a scandalous play and banned from performance by Lord Chamberlain. An attempted show in New York was raided by the police for indecency and it didn’t make the British stage until 1925, 32 years after completion.

New life has been breathed into this Victorian play by Theatre Company Shaw 2020 who explore the dramatic works of Bernard Shaw. Supported by the Shaw Society who promote the work of the Irish polemicist, political activist, and writer, it’s a fascinating insight into attitudes and social hypocrisy surrounding sex work, euphemistically known the ‘oldest profession’ in the world.

Set in respectable Haslemere, Surrey and a rectory garden to boot, this is a suitably British location for the shock revelation that Mrs Warren, in her elegant costumes and played with a singsong, sit-com voice by Laura Fitzpatrick, is a Madame. This disclosure made to her brisk and intelligent Cambridge educated daughter, Miss Vivie Warren, played by Bethany Blake means Vivie’s opportunities have been funded by her mother’s ‘immoral’ earnings. Can their relationship survive?

Although, Mrs Warren’s Profession is an ensemble piece with four men as well as the two women, it’s the female performers who take the spotlight and the only relationship we become invested in. While the women feel like fully developed characters and have a real dilemma to grapple with, the men hold less interest. Although they all circle Vivie like well-dressed vultures, these characters function more to represent different power bases or social attitudes, their positions remain fixed.

Mrs Warren’s smug and arrogant business partner, Sir George Crofts played by Jonas Cemm, (also the director) is the ugly side of capitalism. Their European wide ‘enterprise’ has uncomfortable parallels with today’s illegal immigration, people trafficking and the modern slave trade. Rev. Samuel Gardener played by Antony Wise, an anxious individual who represents the hypocrisy of the church. His camp son, Frank Gardener, Vivie’s love interest is a living extension of this. Mr. Praed, played by Karl Moffatt, is the idealist who favours art over money.

This production is set in the 1930s, when women were becoming more independent: working, driving, smoking, wearing trousers. One can’t help wondering if the play might have been more forceful if set in the time it was written, before women had the vote and piano legs were covered for modesty. At two hours twenty including an interval, it certainly feels this length and at times is too static with dense dialogue and an overriding emphasis on drawing room discussions and opposing views.

Bernard Shaw, who was pro-women, shone a light on women’s limited choices, inequality, and economic disempowerment. He believed, it was these elements that might lead a woman into sex work, not any kind of moral lassitude, a progressive and radical view at the time. Power relations between men and women and the inherent hypocrisy of society comes into focus but it’s a thorny territory. Is Mrs Warren the exploited or the exploiter? As mother and daughter have a fierce moral debate about how a woman might gain independence, the men have no such qualms about their use and ownership of women; their behaviour remains assumed and unquestioned.  Plus ça change.

While this is a fascinating history lesson into Bernard Shaw's views and arguments, it has not dated particularly well. While some social themes remain germane such as the poverty trap and exploitation of the needy, it's a cumbersome thing, overcrowded with too many male voices - when it's the women we care about.

Mrs Warren’s Profession

by Bernard Shaw

directed by Jonas Cemm

produced by SHAW2020

Brockley Jack Studio

16 - 20 July 2024

Box Office Mrs Warren's Profession • Jack Studio Theatre (brockleyjack.co.uk)