The Washington Stage Guild Continues 2021-22 Season With MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION By George Bernard Shaw

The Washington Stage Guild continues its 2021-2022 season with a play we first produced in 1991, George Bernard Shaw's MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION.

Two of Shaw's greatest women clash as Mrs. Warren and her daughter Vivie struggle to connect in light of their very different views on women, morality, and business. Shaw's play was considered explosive when it premiered in 1905, drawing ire from the Lord Chamberlain's office for its frank examination of the hypocrisy surrounding prostitution. It still packs a punch today. This new production will be helmed by the director of our 1991 production, Michael Rothhaar.

"Shaw's eternal topicality is well represented in this play, written in 1893 but banned in England for decades because of its irreverent take on issues of moral certainty in the period he wrote it," says WSG Artistic Director Bill Largess. "For us, it's especially exciting to have Lynn Steinmetz and Michael Rothhaar, who were involved in our 1991 production, return to the great script for a fresh look. And to have a marvelous cast of Stage Guild favorites joined by friends since infancy WILL ROTHHAAR (Michael's son) and Rachel Felstein is a particular treat."

Says director, Michael Rothhaar, "When I first directed this play at the Stage Guild in 1991, I was stunned to find how much this play, which rocked the world in the late 19th Century, remained both shocking and seditious in the late 20th Century. Apparently, not much actually changed during the intervening hundred years."

Now, another thirty years on, Shaw's play continues to be a witty, insightful and relentless account of two women, at different points in life, who insist on choosing their own destinies in the face of the expectations of Victorian society. Let me say that again with emphasis: CHOOSING their OWN destinies. And the play remains every bit as resonant and, sadly, every bit as necessary as it was 130-odd years ago. That these fierce women are mother and daughter and stand opposed to each other equally armored, makes for a thrilling, shocking and heartbreaking tale. I am grateful to join them again. Welcome back to the fight."

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