Professional woman is the heroine for Shaw

“Lord help the world if everybody took to doing the right thing,” says Mrs Warren (Sorcha Cusack) in the Gate Theatre’s new production of George Bernard Shaw’s play, Mrs Warren’s Profession.

The comic-drama centres on a clash of values between a businesswoman of immoral means and her idealistic and modern daughter (Rebecca O’Mara), who is hell-bent on doing the right thing, whatever the cost.

“Vivie is Shaw’s ‘new woman’,” says O’Mara. “There were so many female characters at that time (the 1890s) that were very archetypal, but Vivie is completely original. Shaw wanted the focus to be on this new, independent woman. She’s a feminist. She’s educated. She’s career-oriented. She wants to exercise personal, social and economic control over her own life.”