Vivie Warren, a young Cambridge graduate is horrified to learn that her education and entire luxurious life-style has been financed by her mother’s career in the world’s oldest profession.

 

The play was written in 1893 but was not performed until 1902 after which it was banned from public performance until 1925. Apparently Shaw wrote the play “to draw attention to the truth that prostitution is caused - not by female depravity or male licentiousness but simply by underpaying, undervaluing and overworking women so shamefully that the poorest of them are forced to resort to prostitution to keep body and soul together.”

 

This ground-breaking period drama is full of insight and humane understanding and ranks as one of Shaw’s masterpieces.