‘I am my mother’s daughter. I am like you. But my work is not your work, and my way is not your way.’
Vivie Warren is a woman ahead of her time. Estranged from her wealthy mother, she delights in a glass of whisky and a good detective story, and is determined to carve herself a sparkling legal career in an age ruled by men.
Her mother, however, is a part of that old patriarchal order. Exploiting it has earned Mrs. Warren a fortune and paid for her daughter’s expensive education – but at what cost?
Bernard Shaw’s incendiary moral classic was written in 1893, but, after being banned by the Lord Chamberlain, didn’t receive a full public production in London until 1925. This version of the play, edited and introduced by director Dominic Cooke, was produced at the Garrick Theatre in London’s West End in 2025, starring real-life mother and daughter Imelda Staunton and Bessie Carter.
‘An extraordinary tour de force… vivid and compelling… Dominic Cooke has shaved and sharpened Shaw’s original to make its theme of hypocrisy all the clearer. Everything has been pared away to shine the spotlight on the essential dilemmas, and to leave the audience to decide where outrage should lie… it is surprisingly upsetting’
— WhatsOnStage
‘Explosive… if Victorians were shocked by the theme of sex work, the play’s ideological grenades about the corruptions of capitalism and establishment hypocrisies still resonate today… nuanced and full of intellectual restlessness… Shaw’s arguments still hold a grip’
— Guardian
‘Classy… quietly tremendous… conveys the age-old tussle between parent and child and crystalises the ethical wrench between improving one’s lot and not hurting others’
— Telegraph
‘Shaw’s critiques of capitalism here feel all too relevant… he writes women who think and debate as they’d never been allowed to on stage before… Cooke’s pared-back production lets that modernity shine out’
— Independent
‘Startlingly fresh and unexpectedly entertaining… feels bracingly current even today’
— Time Out
‘Incendiary… Dominic Cooke’s streamlined adaptation strips away excess babble and channels Shaw’s drama with the white-knuckle force of Greek tragedy… Mrs Warren lives in us all’
— Broadway World
‘Lean and startlingly radical’
— London Theatre
