Mrs. Warren's Profession

Common card · No. 289876

Mrs Warren's Profession is a 1893 play by George Bernard Shaw, first performed in London in 1902. It was included in Shaw's 1898 collection Plays Unpleasant, alongside The Philanderer and Widowers' Houses. The story concerns a former prostitute, now a madam (brothel proprietor), who attempts to come to terms with her disapproving daughter. It is a problem play, offering social commentary to argue that prostitution was not caused by moral failure but by economic necessity. Shaw borrowed several elements from his own 1882 novel Cashel Byron's Profession, about a man who becomes a boxer due to limited employment opportunities.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Billy Rose Theater Collection, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Public domain