Brian Brady's new production of the play in which George Bernard Shaw most notoriously turned supposedly moral social conventions on their dishonestly pragmatic heads is not to be missed. There are no nice people here unless it be Mrs Warren herself - "a good sort but a bad lot" - and there is no romantic fudging of the issues under discussion, unless it be in the childish courtship between Miss Vivie and Master Frank Gardner which the author intended. When Kitty Warren chose the profession of prostitute it was the only way in which, reasonably, she could herself accumulate wealth and provide for her fatherless daughter a life of independence and choice. And everyone else in her circle either condoned, profited from, participated in or denied her actions. Small wonder that the Lord Chamberlain banned its performance on the grounds of obscenity and liability to corrupt public morals.
Under Brady's unforgiving direction, it is played by an excellent cast for every ounce of unpleasant social truth that it contains. Young Vivie is every bit as hard-headed as her mother and, woefully, lacking her mother's softeningly human sentiments: a vividly hard-edged characterisation by Suzanne Robertson. Young Frank is a selfish prat, spongeing from his bumbling, dishonest and generally inept father and seeking (until he realises he cannot succeed) to sponge from Vivie as well. Who will ever forget Owen Sharpe's hollow and inane grin as Frank, or the fumbling and false self-regard of Brian McGrath's Rev George Gardner? How can anyone excuse Chris McHallem's retreat into art and beauty so that he can deny the reality of the world in which he should be living as Praed, or the dead-eyed suave venality of Nick Dunning as Sir George Crofts, Mrs Warren's "honourable" pimp on a 35 per cent rake-off from her earnings? And Anna Healy's Kitty Warren catches perfectly the necessary balance between her lower-class origins and the assurance which she has gained from her financial success.
One suspects that Mr Shaw would have been greatly pleased with these performances and the production for telling his play like it is: a masterly examination of the deep social injustice and dishonesty of Victorian society as the author saw it, and for telling it so entertainingly to boot. Jamie Vartan's ambitious single set does not quite contain the different settings the author sought, but it very nearly does and Paul Keogan is greatly helpful to the mood and intent of the piece, adding much to a telling night of theatre which marks well the 50th anniversary of the playwright's death.
Runs until July 8th. To book phone 01-8787222
