Full Cast Set For Imelda Staunton-Led MRS. WARREN’S PROFESSION
Mrs. Warren's Profession opens at the Garrick Theatre on 22 May, with previews from 10 May.
By: Stephi Wild Mar. 24, 2025
Full principal casting has been announced for the upcoming major revival of George Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession, directed by Dominic Cooke. Joining the previously announced Imelda Staunton and Bessie Carter are Kevin Doyle, Robert Glenister, Reuben Joseph and Sid Sagar.
Newly edited for this production by Dominic Cooke, Mrs. Warren's Profession opens at the Garrick Theatre on 22 May, with previews from 10 May. The strictly limited run will end on 16 August.
Vivie Warren is a woman ahead of her time. Estranged from her wealthy mother, she delights in a glass of whisky, 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 product 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?
Four-time Olivier Award winner Imelda Staunton (The Crown, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) joins forces with her daughter Bessie Carter (Bridgerton, Dear Octopus) for the very first time, reuniting with the extraordinary director Dominic Cooke (Hello, Dolly!, Good) to bring George Bernard Shaw's incendiary moral classic crashing into the 21st Century.
George Bernard Shaw's play, written in 1893, was banned by the Lord Chamberlain for 30 years due to its candid discussion of prostitution and wasn't performed in London until 1925.
Biographies
George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950) was an Irish playwright. His major works include Arms and the Man, Candida, The Philanderer, The Devil's Disciple, Man and Superman, Major Barbara, The Doctor's Dilemma, Misalliance, Pygmalion, Heartbreak House, and Saint Joan. He won multiple awards, including the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925.
Multi-award-winning Imelda Staunton plays Mrs. Kitty Warren. Her theatre work includes Hello, Dolly! (London Palladium), Talking Heads (Bridge Theatre), Follies, Life x3, The Beggar's Opera, Guys and Dolls, A Chorus of Disapproval – Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Play (National Theatre), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Harold Pinter Theatre) Circle Mirror Transformation (Royal Court Theatre), Gypsy (Chichester Festival Theatre and Savoy Theatre – Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical), Sweeney Todd (Chichester Festival Theatre and Adelphi Theatre – Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical), A Delicate Balance (Almeida Theatre), Entertaining Mr Sloane (Trafalgar Studios), Fairmaid of the West, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, The Wizard of Oz (RSC), The Corn is Green (The Old Vic), Uncle Vanya (Vaudeville Theatre), Into the Woods (Phoenix Theatre - Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical). For television her work includes Brassic, The Crown as Elizabeth II, Talking Heads, Trying, Flesh and Blood, A Confession, That Day We Sang, The Girl, Psychoville, Cranford Chronicles, Up The Garden Path, My Family and Other Animals, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Fingersmith, Strange, Family Business, Cambridge Spies, Easy Money and The Singing Detective. Film includes Paddington in Peru, Downton Abbey: A New Era, Downton Abbey: The Movie, Amulet, Finding Your Feet, Pride (British Independent Film Award for Best Supporting Actress), Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Maleficent, The Awakening, Another Year, Paddington 1 and 2, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Taking Woodstock, A Bunch of Amateurs, Freedom Writers, Vera Drake (BAFTA, British Independent Film Awards, Evening Standard Film Awards, London Critics' Circle Award, Los Angeles Film Critics' Association Award, New York Film Critics' Circle Award for Best Actress; SAG, Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations), Nanny McPhee, Bright Young Things, Shakespeare in Love, Much Ado About Nothing, Sense and Sensibility, Peter's Friends.
Bessie Carter plays Vivie Warren. Her theatre work includes Dear Octopus (National Theatre), All My Sons, King Lear (The Old Vic), and Baskerville (Liverpool Playhouse). For television, her work includes Outrageous, A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story, Bridgerton (series regular Prudence Featherington), I Hate Suzie, Beecham House, Doc Martin, Howard's End, Cranford and Trevor Island; and for film, Les Misérables. Carter was winner of the Spotlight Prize in 2016.
Kevin Doyle plays Rev. Samuel Gardner. His theatre credits include Pressure (Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh), Tartuffe, The White Guard, Mutabilitie (National Theatre), Fanny and Alexander (The Old Vic), This House (Chichester Festival Theatre, Garrick Theatre) NSFW, The Spur of the Moment (Royal Court Theatre), One for the Road/Victoria Station (Young Vic), For King and Country (UK tour), Three in the Back, Two in Head, The Mob, A Hole in the Top of the World (Orange Tree Theatre), Henry V, Coriolanus, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Artistes and Admires, Romeo and Juliet, A Woman Killed with Kindness, Henry IV Parts I and II, Kissing the Pope, Twelfth Night, The Plantagenets, The Plain Dealer (RSC), The Crucible (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Much Ado About Nothing (UK tour, Queen's Theatre), Hamlet (Haworth Shakespeare Festival, New Jersey), Thérèse Raquin (Chichester Minerva Studio) and Othello (Bristol Old Vic). His television credits include The Hack, Riot Women, Ridley, Vera, Sherwood, The Witcher, Miss Scarlet and The Duke, Death in Paradise, Doc Martin, Paranoid, Happy Valley, Downton Abbey, A.D Beyond The Bible, The Crimson Field, Snodgrass, Open Doors, The Accused, New Tricks, Room at the Top, Scott & Bailey, Vexed, Survivors, Five Days, Paradox, Silent Witness, The Tudors, Til' We Die and Drop Dead Gorgeous; and for film, Downton Abbey: A New Era, Downton Abbey: The Movie, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Good, The Libertine and the upcoming Downton Abbey 3.
Rober Glenister plays Sir George Crofts. His theatre credits include The Seagull, Moonlight/Night School (Harold Pinter Theatre), Alys Always (Bridge Theatre), Glengarry Glen Ross (Playhouse Theatre), Great Britain, Never So Good, Blue Remembered Hills, Ting Tang Mine, Fathers and Sons, Brighton Bach Memoirs (National Theatre), The Late Middle Classes (Donmar Warehouse), Hedda Gabler (Theatre Royal Bath), The Winterling (Royal Court Theatre), Uncle Vanya, An Ideal Husband, The Idiot, The Voysey Inheritance (Royal Exchange); Measure for Measure, The Tempest, The Spanish Tragedy, Little Eyolf (RSC), According to Hoyle (Hampstead Theatre), The Duchess of Malfi (Greenwich Theatre), Hamlet and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Sheffield Theatres). His television credits include Still Waters, Here We Go, The Death of Bunny Munro, The Night Caller, Suspicion, Sherwood, Grace, Isolation Stories, Lethal White, Doctor Who, Curfew, Cold Feet, Paranoid, The Musketeers, Code of a Killer, Close to the Enemy, Vera, The Great Train Robbery, Miss Marple, The Café, We'll Take Manhattan, Hustle, Appropriate Adult, Moving On: Skin Deep, Spooks, Warriors: Spartacus, Eroica, Between the Sheets, Roger Roger, A Touch of Frost, My Fragile Heart, Bramwell, Prime Suspect, Persuasion, Landing on the Sun, Only Fools and Horses, Boon, Kinsey, Soldier Soldier and Sink or Swim; and for film, Villain, The Aeronauts, Journey's End, Live by Night, Cryptic, Creation, Laissez Passer, The Visitors, All Forgotten, Secret Rapture and Quadrophenia.
Reuben Joseph plays Frank Gardner. His theatre credits include A View from the Bridge (Tron Theatre, Glasgow), The Outrun (Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh), Macbeth (RSC), Hamilton (Victoria Palace), The Tragedy of Macbeth (Almeida Theatre), Orphans, Rapunzel; The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil; Midsummer (National Theatre of Scotland), Sinbad (Perth Theatre), How Not to Drown (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Anything That Gives Off Light (National Theatre of Scotland, The TEAM) and A Christmas Carol (Citizens Theatre). His television credits include Vigil, Traces and Crime.
Sid Sagar plays Mr Praed. His theatre credits include Ballet Shoes, The Father and the Assassin (National Theatre), Cabaret (Playhouse Theatre), The Crucible, hang (Sheffield Theatres), The Starry Messenger (Wyndham's Theatre), The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage, Julius Caesar (Bridge Theatre), Queen Anne (RSC at Theatre Royal Haymarket), The Invisible Hand, White Teeth (Kiln Theatre), The Tempest, Cymbeline, The Oresteia, Eternal Love (also for ETT), The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare's Globe), Treasure (Finborough Theatre), The History Boys (UK tour) and True Brits (Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Bush Theatre). His television credits include Big Mood, Best Interests, Slow Horses, The Capture, CBeebies: As You Like It, CBeebies: Twelfth Night, Anatomy of a Scandal, A Discovery of Witches, Unprecedented, Silent Witness, Wild Bill, Press, The Hollow Crown and The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies; and for film, The Last Disturbance of Madeline Hynde, The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford, The Batman, Cruella, Belfast, Death on the Nile, Dolittle, Ready Player One and Murder on the Orient Express. As a writer, theatre includes Biting Point (Hull, UK tour) and film includes Baked Beans.
Dominic Cooke is a highly accomplished theatre, film, and television director. He was Artistic Director of The Royal Court Theatre from 2007 to 2013. During his tenure at the Royal Court he directed Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris (also West End, Sonia Friedman Productions) for which he was nominated as Best Director for the Evening Standard Awards. He has directed Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Here We Go and The Comedy Of Errors for The National Theatre, and The Crucible for the RSC for which he won the Olivier Award for Best Director. His critically acclaimed production of Follies was nominated for 10 Olivier awards, including Best Director – and most recently directed Hello Dolly! at the London Palladium. Also a writer, he wrote the stage adaptation of Malorie Blackman's Noughts and Crosses, which he directed and produced at the RSC; and an adaptation of Arabian Nights for Young Vic. Cooke has successfully transitioned to television and film, beginning with his adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry VI Parts 1 and 2 for BBC TV's The Hollow Crown: The Wars of The Roses. His first feature film, On Chesil Beach, starred Saoirse Ronan and Billy Howle - the film is based on the novel of the same name by Booker Prize winning novelist Ian McEwan, and premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, where it was chosen by Variety as one of the ten best films of the festival. His latest feature The Courier with Benedict Cumberbatch and Rachel Brosnahan premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was released in 2021.
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