Felicity Kendal to Reprise Mrs. Warren's Profession at the West End's Comedy Theatre

By Mark Shenton
22 Dec 2009

Felicity Kendal is to star in the West End as Mrs. Warren in a new production of Bernard Shaw's Mrs Warren's Profession that recently completed a U.K. tour after premiering at Bath's Theatre Royal. It will begin performances March 16, prior to an official opening March 25, and is booking for a 14-week run through June 19.

The play, written in 1893, was originally banned by the Lord Chamberlain's office (the U.K's then-operating theatre censor) for its portrayal of prostitution, but was first performed under private 'club conditions' at London's New Lyric Club in 1905, and publicly in New York in the same year, which led to the arrest of the entire cast and crew, but for which the house manager alone was charged. One review, in the New York Herald, called the play "Morally rotten. It defends immorality. It glorifies debauchery……."

In the play, Mrs Warren's daughter, Vivie, has never really known much about her mother. She has enjoyed a comfortable upbringing, a Cambridge education, a generous monthly allowance and now has ambitions to go into the Law. Is it conceivable that all this privilege and respectability has been financed from the proceeds of the oldest profession? How will Vivie react when she finds out the awful truth about her mother's ill-gotten gains?

Kendal, who plays Mrs. Warren, is best known for her TV roles in such series as "The Good Life," "Solo," "The Mistress" and "Rosemary and Thyme." She is also a highly respected theatre actress, who has starred in the world premieres of many plays by Tom Stoppard, including The Real Thing, Hapgood and Arcadia. She was most last seen in the West End in Simon Gray's The Last Cigarette at the Trafalgar Studios, that transferred from Chichester's Minerva Theatre under the direction of Richard Eyre. Other recent West End credits include productions of The Vortex, Amy's View and Happy Days, all directed by Peter Hall.

The cast also includes Mark Tandy as Praed, David Yelland as Crofts, Lucy Briggs-Owen as Vivie, Eric Carte as Reverend Samuel Gardner and Max Bennett as Frank.

The play is directed by Michael Rudman, who has directed extensively in the West End and at the National Theatre. His Broadway credits include The Changing Room (for which he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play), Sam Waterston as Hamlet at the Vivian Beaumont and Dustin Hoffman in Death of a Salesman.

To book tickets, contact the box office on 0870 060 6622, or visit www.ambassadortickets.com