Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company finds itself rocked by scandal as a notorious scarlet woman takes to the stage. In a co-production with Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre, the company presents MRS WARREN’S PROFESSION by George Bernard Shaw, a ground-breaking play so infamous that it took thirty years to be staged in public. Tony Cownie directs the wicked and witty tale of a young woman shocked to the core when the source of her mother’s wealth is revealed, featuring stage and screen star Paola Dionisotti as Mrs Warren herself and Coronation Street’s Emma Stansfield as her daughter Vivie. With internet specialists Presence as sponsor, MRS WARRENS PROFESSION runs at Nottingham Playhouse from Wednesday 14 to Saturday 31 March (Box Office: 0115 941 9419 or www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk).
Vivie Warren is a young woman of independent spirit, the product of the best education that money can buy. Then, on a rare visit to her mother, she discovers just where that money came from for Mrs Warren has risen in the world by morally questionable means. Their confrontation reaches terrifying proportions when the true extent of Mrs Warren’s entrepreneurial career is revealed. At the same time, Vivie must contend with two rivals for her hand: charming vicars son Frank and the wealthy but predatory Sir George Crofts.
MRS WARREN’S PROFESSION was written in 1893, at the beginning of Shaw’s theatrical career, and was immediately banned by the Lord Chamberlain because of its frank discussion of prostitution, or perhaps because it points the finger at the hypocrisy of society as a whole. It took until 1925 for the play to receive its first public performance in the UK. Shaw raises questions about exploitation and gender politics which were radical at the time and remain strikingly relevant. However, the play is no social debate but a succession of sparkling comic dialogue and compulsive emotional conflict, with its vivid characters including two women as strong-willed as any in literature.
Paola Dionisotti takes the title role of the shameless Mrs Warren. The recipient of an Evening Standard Award and The Stage’s Best Actress award in 2000 for her role in Further than the Furthest Thing (Tron/National Theatre), she has made many appearances with such companies as the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, the Young Vic and the Royal Court. Television credits include Harbour Lights and three series of Forever Green opposite Pauline Collins and John Alderton.
Emma Stansfield plays Mrs Warren’s naïve but fiercely intelligent daughter Vivie. Emma has appeared at the National Theatre and in the West End. She is perhaps best known on television as troublemaker Ronnie Clayton in Coronation Street. Antony Eden plays Frank, with Richard Addison as Rev. Samuel Gardner, Dougal Lee as Sir George Crofts and John Bett as Mrs Warren’s confidant Mr Praed.
Recent productions by Director Tony Cownie range from John Byrne’s Tutti Frutti for the National Theatre of Scotland to Aladdin at the Kings Theatre, Glasgow. Several productions for the Royal Lyceum include Laurel and Hardy and last year’s Tartuffe. MRS WARREN’S PROFESSION is designed by Neil Murray with lighting by Malcolm Rippeth. It marks Nottingham Playhouse’s second collaboration with the Royal Lyceum, following Richard Baron’s successful production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
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