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Mrs. Warren’s Profession

by George Bernard Shaw

Genre: Drama
Setting:
Format of Original Source: Short Story
Recommended Adaptation Length: Two Hours

Candidate for Adaptation? Promising

EXCERPT:

A respectable member of society is desperate to protect her daughter from finding out that in her youth she was a prostitute.

an excerpt:

MRS WARREN. Well, what do you notice now?

PRAED. Only that Vivie is a grown woman. Pray, Kitty, treat her with every respect.

MRS WARREN [with genuine amazement] Respect! Treat my own daughter with respect! What next, pray!

VIVIE [appearing at the cottage door and calling to Mrs Warren] Mother: will you come to my room before tea?

MRS WARREN. Yes, dearie. [She laughs indulgently at Praed’s gravity, and pats him on the cheek as she passes him on her way to the porch]. Don’t be cross, Praddy. [She follows Vivie into the cottage].

CROFTS [furtively] I say, Praed.

PRAED. Yes.

CROFTS. I want to ask you a rather particular question.

PRAED. Certainly. [He takes Mrs Warren’s chair and sits close to Crofts].

CROFTS. Thats right: they might hear us from the window. Look here: did Kitty every tell you who that girl’s father is?

PRAED. Never.

CROFTS. Have you any suspicion of who it might be?



COMMENTS:

A truly great play. Powerful and interesting, and filled with Shavian humanity and “look at it from the other side” perspective. Will it musicalize? Perhaps not; or perhaps its melodramatic style might be best suited towards opera.


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