Von Uta Buhr
AN OLD NEW PLAY OR A NEW OLD PLAY AT THE ENGLISH THEATRE OF HAMBURG: GEORGE BERNHARD SHAW’S “MRS WARREN’S PROFESSION
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“What a scandal – how shocking indeed!” This might have been the mildest criticism with regard to George Bernhard Shaw’s play about prostitution in Queen Victoria’s puritanical Great Britain at the beginning of the 20th century. As it is, the play “Mrs Warren’s Profession”, written by the author in 1894, was staged in 1902 when the virtuous ruler – Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India – had already been dead for a year. However, her high moral standards were still alive at all levels of society. What a cheek of a playwright – an Irishman at that – to stir up the hornet’s nest of dirt and prostitution which virtually did by no means exist at that time in the country. How daring! Anyway, under the severe theatre censorship of Her Majesty’s Lord Chamberlain the play was forbidden after its first performance. Later, when rules were a bit relaxed, Mrs Kitty Warren’s life as a “madam” of a string of brothels on the Continent became a great box-office success not only in Britain. Continue reading „The English Theatre of Hamburg: Mrs Warren`s Profession“