About the work
Play in four acts by George Bernard Shaw, written in 1893 as the second of his "unpleasant plays". Britain's censor, the Lord Chamberlain, refused it a public licence; it was first staged as a closed performance by the Stage Society on 5 January 1902 at the New Lyric Club, London, and not performed publicly in Britain until 1925. The German-language premiere, under the title "Frau Warrens Beruf", took place on 9 October 1906 at the Raimundtheater in Vienna, initiated by Shaw's translator Siegfried Trebitsch.
Plot
Having just finished her studies, the young mathematician Vivie Warren visits her mother Kitty, who has funded her comfortable upbringing without ever explaining its source. Vivie learns that her mother began as a prostitute out of bitter poverty and now runs a Europe-wide chain of luxury brothels. When it emerges that Kitty has no intention of giving up the business despite her secured wealth, Vivie breaks with her and chooses an independent professional life instead.
Cultural significance
Shaw intended the play to show prostitution as a consequence of economic necessity and male double standards rather than individual vice; its censorship history made it a landmark case in the debate over stage freedom. A New York performance at the Garrick Theatre on 30 October 1905 led to the arrest of the entire cast the next day for violating public decency laws; the resulting court case failed and all involved were acquitted.