Last night, I saw Gingold Theatrical Group’s wonderful
production of Mrs. Warren’s Profession,
now playing on Theatre Row.
As a production note points out, when Bernard Shaw first
wrote the play in 1893, prostitution was already a crowd-pleasing plot point in
numerous plays, including The Lady of the
Camellias by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The fact that Mrs. Warren’s profession
turned out to involve the sex trade was hardly controversial. What was controversial was to see a woman
defend so vigorously her right to engage in that profession.
As the titular character Kitty Warren, Karen Ziemba does
an excellent job portraying an unapologetic, ambitious, and fleshly woman who
takes enjoyment in life no matter what others might think of her. Ziemba, who was
delightfully airy as Hesione Hushabye in GTG’s production of Heartbreak House, could not be more
different as Kitty Warren, who is grounded in an earthy worldliness throughout
the play. The audience thoroughly enjoys every moment she is on the stage.
In many ways the more difficult role in the play is Kitty’s
daughter Vivie, who is portrayed in this production by Nicole King, making her
Off-Broadway debut. Raised in material comfort while ignorant of her mother’s
profession, Vivie excels at mathematics at Cambridge and longs to get a job
working in her own chambers in London. When she discovers the business her
mother has fallen into, she reacts with understanding, but when she realizes her mother has never left that business, and participates in the exploitation of other
women, she closes herself off from those around her, plunging into her own
profession as diligently and enthusiastically as her mother had engaged in
hers.
Director David Staller helps to fill out Vivie’s inner
life in a theatrical moment when the other cast members speak in turns a line she
has in the play. In this way, we see how the young woman’s world view has been
shaped by all those around her, emphasizing over and over the notions that she
internalizes, for better or for worse. “I don’t believe in circumstances,” she
says, “The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look
for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them.” The
fact that we hear these lines not just in Vivie’s voice, but in the voices of
the rest of the cast, demonstrates that no matter what she may claim, Vivie is
a product of her own circumstances, like it or not.
In addition to the two leading women, the supporting cast
is excellent as well. Raphael Nash Thompson, the brilliant Captain Shotover in
GTG’s Heartbreak House, plays the Rev.
Samuel Gardner, and the relative newcomer David Lee Huynh is a delight as
Gardner’s son (and Vivie’s love interest) Frank. Robert Cuccioli, who played
Julius Caesar in GTG’s Caesar and Cleopatra, brings depth to the villainous baronet Sir George Crofts, and
Alvin Keith is a breath of fresh spring air as the romantic and artistic architect
Mr. Praed.
Mrs. Warren’s
Profession is playing until November 20th, so get your tickets now! You won’t
want to miss it.
