At its 1907 première, Mrs. Warren’s Profession drubbed by FP critic

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/01/2012 (5357 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession had been banned in England and the American cast arrested after its 1905 New York debut when it arrived in Winnipeg in 1907 for its Canadian premiere.

At the time the star actress Rose Coghlan was the major attraction, “as one of the greatest interpreters of the better class of drama on the American stage.” Shaw’s name was dwarfed by hers in Free Press ads for the three-performance run at the Walker Theatre.

Shaw’s study of prostitution and capitalism was drubbed by the Free Press critic, who went by the initials E. B. He gagged on “the bitter sewerlike flavour one carried away in the mouth” and compared it to “fly-blown meat, tainted.”

“No more unwholesome nor repulsive play has ever been seen in Winnipeg than George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession,” read the review. “The play was a beatification of evil living, a sermon on the advantages of vice and the story of a woman whom to term a courtesan would be a compliment.”

The show was reportedly taken in by only a fair-sized crowd made up of a small number of women.

The play was first presented at the Manitoba Theatre Centre in 1963 and is revived starting tonight at the RMTC Warehouse.