Mrs Warren’s Profession: a beautifully rounded and entirely believable characterization

 

Mrs. Warren’s Profession By George Bernard Shaw at the Classic Theatre Festival.   Director: Laurel Smith

The world’s oldest profession, though ubiquitous then and now, was apparently unmentionable on stage. This is why Mrs. Warren’s Profession, though ready for production in 1894, was banned for several years in Great Britain and first performed in New York in 1905 for one night only, followed by arrest warrants for several of those involved with the production.As George Bernard Shaw wrote in his preface to the play, while public outrage seemed to be based on ladies being present at stage performances, he would “simply affirm that Mrs. Warren’s Profession is a play for women; that it was written for women” and that the aim of the play was not “to throw the whole guilt of Mrs. Warren’s profession on Mrs. Warren herself…but to throw that guilt on the British public.”

 

It is fitting then that, while she escaped from the respectability of being one of the working poor to become a wealthy madam running brothels in several countries, Mrs. Warren should continue her profession beyond initial need. And, in the Classic Theatre Festival production of the Shaw classic, directed by Laurel Smith, Catherine McNally’s beautifully rounded and entirely believable characterization makes Mrs. Warren’s choices and attachments totally clear.

 

McNally’s outstanding performance casts something of a shadow over the new woman model, in the form of her daughter, Vivie. For some, Vivie would appear to be the heroine. Tomorrow belongs to the determined independent woman. She rejects both the traditional route of marriage to her ardent suitor and further financial help from her mother once she discovers the funding source. But, in this production, it is difficult for Vivie (Anna Burkholder) to hold her ground in the face of the quality of McNally’s Mrs. Warren or even the bouncy pragmatism of Kyle Orzech as her beau.

 

The rest of the cast reflects other aspects of society effectively. As Shaw has said, “rich men without conviction are more dangerous in modern society than poor women without chastity.” Sir George (Nicholas Rice) cares little where his money comes from as long as it flows. The Rev. Samuel Gardner (Colin Legge) has sunk his randy past beneath his present respectability. And the third gentleman, Praed (Douglas Hughes), keeps kindness and charm on the surface, preferring not to know anything unpleasant.

 

But, Mrs. Warren’s Profession is one of Shaw’s “plays unpleasant”— so called because it forces us to face unpleasant facts. The most important of these is that “in Mrs. Warren’s Profession, society, and not any individual, is the villain of the piece.”

Perhaps the primary point today is to ask whether the villain is unchanged. Certainly it is an additional prism through which to view the CTF production, which continues to August 12.

Director: Laurel Smith

Set: Roger Schultz

Lighting: Wesley McKenzie

Sound: Matthew Behrens

Costumes: Renate Seiler

Cast:

Vivie Warren……………………………….Anna Burkholder

Praed………………………………………..Douglas Hughes

Rev. Samuel Gardner……………………….Colin Legge

Mrs. Kitty Warren…………………………..Catherine McNally

Frank Gardner……………………………….Kyle Orzech

Sir George Crofts……………………………Nicholas Rice