‘Mrs Warren’s Profession’: the play that got its entire cast arrested for portraying sex workers
It’s rare that anyone gets shocked by a play anymore.
Theatre is an establishment medium in the eyes of most. No less an authority than Daniel Day-Lewis called the theatre an elitist medium earlier this year (at the time of writing). Saying that, in an interview with Mark Kermode, “much as [he] loved [his] time in the theatre, that we were essentially performing to a group of more or less privileged people.” Damningly, Lewis was talking about work that he’d done in the 1980s, but it could quite easily be said about the world of theatre today.
In the world of theatre, one has to look quite hard to find the pieces truly challenging not the audience, but society at large. They do exist and they always will, but it wasn’t that long ago that the most mainstream houses in the land were platforming plays that would get them in a hell of a lot of trouble. For proof of this, look no further than the production history of George Bernard Shaw’s masterpiece, Mrs Warren’s Profession.
Honestly, the fact that this play was written in 1893 is mind-boggling. It tells the story of the titular Mrs Warren, a brothel owner and former prostitute who is trying to connect with her daughter, who disapproves of everything her mother represents. This was a time when most sex workers in fiction had to die by the end of the story. I do mean “had to” as well; stories that feature them wouldn’t be published without it. Yet, Mrs Warren’s Profession was something quite different.
How did a play get its cast arrested?
Mrs Warren’s Profession had the temerity to present sex workers as real people who fall into situations through no fault of their own. Not only that, it presents the title character as someone to be respected for their success, who owns her profession and will not apologise for it, even if it drives a wedge between her and her own daughter.
Shaw himself said as much, saying that he wrote the play “to draw attention to the truth that prostitution is caused, not by female depravity and male licentiousness, but simply by underpaying, undervaluing and overworking women so shamefully that the poorest of them are forced to resort to prostitution to keep body and soul together.” Considering this was a play written two decades before World War One, you can imagine the uproar it caused.
Theatres in London banned the play outright, causing it to be performed in specially licensed members’ clubs when it eventually hit the stage in 1902. This may have been for the best, as its American premiere in 1905 was held in the Garrick Theatre. This premiere was so controversial that the entire cast and crew were arrested after its very first performance for violating the Comstock obscenity laws.
Thankfully, no charge stuck, the performances continued after a week, and revivals of Mrs Warren’s Profession still pack out houses to this day.