Written in 1893, George Bernard Shaw’s play is a moral debate about prostitution, although that word is never mentioned once. The subject matter was considered so shocking that the play was once banned in England by the Lord Chamberlain and in New York the police arrested the cast.

Central to the play is the relationship between Mrs Warren, a former prostitute, and her modern thinking daughter, Vivie, who is horrified to discover her mother’s fortune results from managing high-class brothels, from which her Cambridge education has been paid.

A brief reconciliation follows Mrs Warren’s explanation that poverty led her into prostitution. Vivie is able to forgive her mother until learning that the profitable business remains in operation.

The play is full of glorious Shavian debate punctuated with witty epigrams and offers the cast meaty roles.

It was Shaw’s intention to attack the hypocrisy of a society who looked down on the commercialisation of the sex trade by contrasting it with the acceptable face of marriage, where women traded their bodies for security, position and wealth.

The play is simply staged, avoiding scenic distraction, thereby making the words paramount. And the words are given full justice by an excellent cast.

Felicity Kendal is in splendid form as Kitty Warren, forever practical and doting on her daughter, until rejected when she becomes a ferocious beast, lashing out. The interchanges between her and Vivie, an impressively fiery performance from Lucy Briggs-Owen, are the play’s finest moments.

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