'Mrs Warren's Profession' review — Imelda Staunton and daughter Bessie Carter are a magnificent double act

Read our review of George Bernard Shaw's play Mrs Warren's Profession, now in performances at the Garrick Theatre to 16 August.

It’s a mother and daughter affair in every sense. Dominic Cooke’s lean revival of George Bernard Shaw’s startlingly radical 1902 play, Mrs Warren’s Profession, stars the always wonderful Imelda Staunton as the controversial title character and, playing her estranged offspring, Staunton’s real-life daughter – and here her impressive sparring partner – Bessie Carter.

This is the first time that the pair have acted on stage together, but I very much hope not the last. Whether it’s their existing relationship that gives this production such a charge, or simply that Carter has inherited her mother’s gifts, they make a riveting double act – so much so that you wish Shaw had given them more scenes together.

Carter’s Cambridge graduate Vivie is determined to pursue a legal career rather than live an empty life of idle privilege. That puts her at odds with the mother she barely knows, but who now desires that Vivie make a good society marriage. Further complicating their tricky dynamic is the play’s shocking revelation: as a desperately poor young girl, Mrs Warren turned to prostitution, and subsequently became a successful madam. That is how she funded Vivie’s education and turned her into a lady.

It’s easy to understand why the play caused such a scandal (it was banned by the Lord Chamberlain, and had its premiere at a private club). In fact, its frank and eminently practical discussion of the dire economic circumstances that lead women into sex work – and the infuriating hypocrisy of a society which then condemns them – still feels both bracing and necessary.

Staunton gives formidable voice to Mrs Warren, the latest in her line of indomitable grafters (from Mama Rose to Dolly Levi). She lends fascinating complexity to a woman who is both victim and perpetrator; who tears down infuriating social pretences and yet, oddly, is more conservative than her daughter, expecting Vivie to take up the traditional roles of wife and doting daughter.

Carter is outstanding as the robustly pragmatic Vivie, whose assured sense of self is shattered by a series of revelations, including about her mother’s work, her elusive father, and various circling suitors. Carter beautifully balances the character’s brisk intelligence and confidence with uncomfortable vulnerability and a gradual realisation of her own naïveté.

Robert Glenister is great value as the monstrous bully Sir George Crofts, as is Sid Sagar as the stubbornly chivalric Mr Praed, Reuben Joseph as Vivie’s feckless beau Frank, and Kevin Doyle as his spluttering vicar dad, terrified that his past is coming back to haunt him.

In Chloe Lamford’s set, an Edenic English country garden is stripped away over the course of the play – a neat visual echo. Cooke also adds an extremely effective silent chorus of half-dressed women, representing those in the story, and beyond, whose exploited labour this capitalist society alternately enjoys, profits from, turns a blind eye to, and judges.

There are a few too many Shavian speeches which pull you out of the drama, though the arguments remain compelling – whether the comparison between sex work and transactional marriage dressed up as romance, or the passionate defence of a woman’s right to find purpose and self-respect through a career. In that latter respect, Mrs Warren and Vivie are actually very similar, but, via the excellent performances here, you deeply feel the tragedy that there is as much to drive them apart as bring them together.

Mrs Warren's Profession is at the Garrick Theatre to 16 August. Book Mrs Warren's Profession tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk.

Photo credit: Mrs Warren's Profession (Photos by Johan Persson)