Mrs. Warren’s Profession

Mainstage The Second Production of Our 40th Anniversary Mainstage Season

In Victorian England, where women enjoy few legal rights, Kitty Warren has built an international business empire. When her daughter Vivie graduates from Cambridge, she presses her mother for answers as to their family background. The truth of how her mother survived poverty is difficult to hear; but it’s not the whole story. Shaw’s 1893 play takes a surprisingly modern view of the choices a woman must make, faced with little or no options before her, and the moral implications of economic survival.

Mrs. Warren’s Profession is a witty, brilliant, and insightful account of two women (PRT’s production features real-life mother and daughter Cyndy Fujikawa and Nell Murphy) at different points in life, who insist on choosing their own destinies. The play remains every bit as resonant and essential as it was 130 years ago. That these strong women, mother and daughter, stand opposed to each other equally armored, makes for a thrilling, poignant and unforgettable evening of one of Shaw’s greatest plays.