It is clear to see why George Bernard Shaw’s 1893 play was banned by the Lord Chamberlain. It argues the economic case for prostitution, has a plotline of potential incest and makes analogies between sex work and marriage that would doubtless have shocked Victorian society.
The moral argument around Mrs Warren’s profession – the world’s oldest trade – is played out in its central relationship. Here that is played by mother-daughter duo Caroline Quentin (as Kitty Warren) and Rose Quentin (as her disapproving, Cambridge-educated daughter, Vivie).
