Displaying items by tag: Mrs Warren's Profession/ National Theatre Live
Mrs Warren's Profession/National Theatre Live
MRS WARREN'S PROFESSION/ NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE
UK, 2025, 120 minutes, Colour.
Imelda Staunton, Bessie Carter.
Directed by Dominic Cooke.
One of the great values of the British National Theatre Live productions is that they make available to world audiences dramatisation of plays which most would not have access to, plays that generally would not be produced as films for cinema or streaming.
This is the case here, the opportunity for audiences to see George Bernard Shaw’s initially quite controversial play, written in 1893, a performance in London in 1902, subject to criticisms by government authorities and popular opinion, finally being performed publicly in England in 1925. With the tone of the title, audiences might quickly conclude what Mrs Warren’s profession was, prostitution, then her management of a brothel. However, the drama is in her confrontation with her “modern” daughter who knows nothing of her mother’s life, is well educated, ambitious in work, workaholic, who is confronted by her mother and her business partner who has an eye for her.
The Wikipedia article on the play notes that Shaw said he wrote it "to draw attention to the truth that prostitution is caused, not by female depravity and male licentiousness, but simply by underpaying, undervaluing and overworking women so shamefully that the poorest of them are forced to resort to prostitution to keep body and soul together."
Mrs Warren does not appear early in the play. The focus is on her daughter, Vivie, Cambridge-educated, a talent in maths, ambitions to work in business. Marriage is not necessarily on her agenda although she is attracted to a young man, son of the local Reverend, a gambler who is relying on Vivie’s support. Another potential suitor, sent by her mother, arrives, catalyst for discussion about Vivie and her determination to make a life for herself.
Then, Mrs Warren arrives, flamboyant, aiming at style, her accent betraying her background. And, her business partner in her entourage, is revealed as somewhat lecherous in his support of Mrs Warren and his attraction towards Vivie. And the Reverend is revealed to have some secrets of his own in connection with Mrs Warren.
Audiences familiar with the plays of George Bernard Shaw will remember that he has a talent for exploring the issues that women face in their times – from Caesar and Cleopatra to St Joan to Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion.
There are further dramatic complications and revelations throughout the play, but this is a tour de force drama for the two actresses, this time played by real-life mother and daughter, Vivie is played by Bessie Carter (resembling her father, Jim Carter, so familiar to many audiences as Carson, the butler, at Downton Abbey) and Mrs Warren is played by her mother, Imelda Staunton, memorable in such films as Vera Drake.
The set here is smaller than usual, more compact, but effective, especially with lighting and staging. The costumes are of the period, stylish.
The dialogue throughout the play dramatises Shaw’s social concerns, issues of society, poverty, pressures on women, the issues of prostitution, seen in their time over 100 years ago but, still strong issues worldwide in the 21st-century.
