Vivie Warren is a well-educated young woman, with clear, dispassionate plans for her future life and career. Over the course of two days, those plans are upended as she discovers how her mother earned the fortune on which they both live.
This edition has been carefully proofread and formatted for a clean, modern reading experience, and includes the new preface Shaw wrote in response to the controversy surrounding the play.
Mrs. Warren's Profession was shocking to the audience for which George Bernard Shaw wrote it in 1893; so much so that it could not be publicly performed until 1925, with the 1902 London premiere taking place in a private club for legal reasons. Its New York premiere, in 1905, was halted by the police and the cast arrested. Shaw's delicate handling of the controversial subject of prostitution may seem tame to a modern reader, but the central relationship between Mrs. Warren and her daughter remains as complex and nuanced as any modern psychological drama, and it endures as one of Shaw's most powerful plays.
Readers drawn to socially provocative drama will see why this once-banned play still challenges audiences over a century later.
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