The genre of the “problem play” emerged during the movement towards realism in the arts in the 19^th century and depicts social issues through the debates between the characters, who generally symbolize the conflicting points of view on a particular issue.  Mrs. Warren’s Profession is a textbook example of a “problem play”. The issue, as you might guess, is prostitution.  The problem starts when Vivie, the daughter of Mrs. Kitty Warren, graduates from Cambridge and returns home to get to know her estranged mother. The play turns on the revelation that her mother had been a prostitute and is now an owner of a chain of brothels. Vivie is horrified at first, and further discomfitted to learn that the father of Frank, her love interest, has a history with her mother and may well be her father.  Learning more about her mother’s life journey, Vivie comes to celebrate her as a champion of female independence, but eventually becomes disillusioned.  We come away with a strong sense of the hypocrisy of attitudes towards the “profession” and the limited employment opportunities available to women at the time.

The play was written in 1893 but was banned by censors until 1902, when it was staged at the private New Lyric Club, and was not performed publicly in London until 1925. The 1905 production in New York was raided by the police and the cast and crew arrested for violating the Comstock Act.  It is a staple in the Shaw canon and has been revived frequently, most recently in 2010 in London, New York and Washington.