Joan Plowright in Mrs Warren's Profession

Joan Plowright in Mrs Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw, Royal National Theatre, London, 1985

George Bernard Shaw's play Mrs Warren's Profession, written in 1894, was banned by the British censor for over 30 years because the profession referred to in the title is prostitution. In order to evade the censors' ban, the play was performed in private clubs or 'club' theatres. The first production was in 1902 in the theatre of the New Lyric Club, London. The play wasn't licensed for public performance until 1925.

The wealthy Mrs. Warren and her feminist daughter, Vivie, who has recently finished college, are reunited. Vivie wants to know why her mother is so secretive about her business life, and is shocked to learn that her mother has earned her fortune running a string of brothels across Europe. Shaw wrote, 'Mrs Warren's Profession was written to draw attention to the truth that prostitution is caused, not by female depravity and male licentiousness, but simply by underpaying, undervaluing and overworking women so shamefully that the poorest of them are forced to resort to prostitution'.

This is Joan Plowright, 'the best possible Mrs Warren' in the opinion of the Financial Times, in the title role in the National Theatre's 1985 production.

June Brown as Hedda Gabler

Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906), photograph showing June Brown as Hedda, Birmingham Repertory Company, 1958

Like Shakespeare, Wilde and Chekhov, the Norwegian Henrik Ibsen is a playwright whose name is easily recognisable to theatre-goers, and his plays have therefore always been popular choices for repertory theatre companies.

The role of Hedda in his 1890 play Hedda Gabler is a challenging one, and has come to be regarded as one of the yardsticks by which to measure an actress's calibre. The title, giving Hedda her maiden name of Gabler, is the first indication that she is unhappy in her new marriage to the bourgeois academic Tesman. Her restless dissatisfaction and the despairing realisation that she is pregnant and therefore trapped in her marriage, lead her to wreak havoc in the lives of those around her. In the last act, having driven one man to suicide, she goes offstage and shoots herself.

This photograph from the 1958 Birmingham Repertory Company production is of June Brown in the role of Hedda. In the same season she played Lady Macbeth opposite Albert Finney. Brown is these days better known for her role as Dot Cotton in EastEnders, another example of the prime training ground provided by the repertory system for a whole generation of actors.

Scene from Mrs Warren's Profession

Mrs Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw, Royal National Theatre, London, 1985

George Bernard Shaw referred to Mrs Warren's Profession as 'this unlucky play of mine'. Although he wrote it in 1894, the play's first public performance in England was not until 1925. Banned by the British censor because the subject matter was deemed improper (the profession of the title is prostitution), it could only be performed in private 'club' theatres in the intervening years. It did open in New York at the Garrick Theater in 1905, but the cast was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct. The New York Herald declared that the limit of stage indecency had been reached: 'the play is morally rotten', declared the reviewer, '... there was a superabundance of foulness'.

Here the full cast of the National Theatre's 1985 production surround Joan Plowright as Mrs Warren (from left to right: Robin Bailey as Praed, John Savident as Sir George Crofts, Jessica Turner as Vivie, Nicholas Selby as the Reverend Samuel Gardner. Hidden just behind Joan Plowright, you can also just see Mark Payton as Frank Gardner).

Set design for the 12th century mountain church of St Nicholas

Set design for the 12th century mountain church of St Nicholas at Giomico, designed by Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966), watercolour sketch, England, 1910

Harley Granville Barker as John Tanner and Lillah McCarthy as Anne Whitefield in Man and Superman

Mr Bernard Shaw Burlesqued by His Own Play, Harley Granville Barker as John Tanner and Lillah McCarthy as Anne Whitefield in Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw, photograph by Ellis & Watery, published in an unidentified periodical, Royal Court Theatre, London, 1905

George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman, set in London, Richmond, the Sierra Nevada and Hell, is subtitled A Comedy and a Philosophy. The plot concerns John Tanner, the author of a book called 'The Revolutionist's Handbook' who, although advanced in his thinking concerning women's emancipation, is intellectually fearful of having to relate to them in reality. The play takes us on a philosophical journey where we see how the powerful Ann, a childhood friend of Tanner's, wins him as a husband through subtle manoeuvring and bare-faced lies.

This picture is from the original 1905 production, staged at the Royal Court Theatre. Harley Granville Barker playing Tanner, looks suspiciously like George Bernard Shaw, the author of the play. Lillah McCarthy, playing Ann, was to become Mrs Granville Barker. It was a marriage that dismayed Shaw, who felt responsible for them as their theatrical father-figure. They also took the leads in Shaw's follow-up success of this time The Doctor's Dilemma.

Poster advertising Mrs Percy Dearmer's rendering of scenes from Ibsen's Brand and Sheridan's School for Scandal

Poster advertising Mrs Percy Dearmer's rendering of scenes from Ibsen's Brand and Sheridan's School for Scandal, by Mabel Dearmer (1862-1915), colour lithograph, London, England, 1895. Museum no. E.376-1921

Measure for Measure

Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare, directed by William Poel (1852-1934), Royalty Theatre, London, 1893

This is a scene from Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure performed at the Royalty Theatre in 1893 and directed by William Poel. William Poel founded the Elizabethan Stage Society in 1894 with the aim of staging plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries as they would have been done when they were written. Poel was reacting against the trend of the time for ‘realistic’ productions which were more about scenery and spectacle than the text or the acting. Poel’s productions used minimal scenery (usually just curtains) and attempted to create a closer and more active involvement between actor and audience.

For this production of Measure for Measure, Poel commissioned a reconstruction of an Elizabethan stage which fitted into the Royalty and hid the modern theatre. The costumed spectators seated on the stage were members of the Elizabethan Society and the Sunday Shakespeare Society. Although Poel’s productions did not enjoy great critical success, they were an important influence on practitioners of the future such as Harley Granville Barker.

Peggy Ashcroft and John Gielgud in The Seagull

Peggy Ashcroft (1907-1991) and John Gielgud (1904-2000) in The Seagull by Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), New Theatre, Oxford, photograph by Houston Rogers (1902-1970), 1936

Even in her early ingenue roles in a series of fairly nondescript West End plays, Peggy Ashcroft attracted the attention of, amongst others, John Gielgud. The qualities remarked upon repeatedly in association with Ashcroft's acting are honesty, lightness and simplicity. In the Daily Telegraph she was described as having 'an uncommon charm and ability'. Her first entrance as Desdemona to Paul Robeson's Othello in 1930 prompted Gielgud to remark, 'it was as if all the lights had suddenly gone up'.

She is pictured here as Nina, with Gielgud as Trigorin, in a 1936 production of Chekhov's The Seagull which was directed by the Russian Komisarjevsky, to whom Ashcroft had briefly been married. Nina is a stage-struck young girl, a part easy enough for a young actress in the first three acts. But many fail in the difficult fourth act, when she returns broken by her experiences. The Observer thought Ashcroft's performance 'perfect in its growth from ... dewy innocence ... to the pale, storm-pelted desperation of the last [act]'.

John Lawrence Toole as Peter Terence in Ghosts

John Lawrence Toole as Peter Terence in Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906), 1891, Guy Little Collection. Museum no. S.139:215-2007

Ghosts was written in 1881 and first staged in 1882. As a commentary on 19th century morality, the play was performed privately at the Royalty Theatre, London, so avoiding censorship by the Lord Chamberlain's office.

Helen Alving discovers shortly after her marriage that her husband is a drunkard and a philanderer. She attempts to save her son, Oswald, from the influence of his father by sending him away. However, when her husband finally dies and Oswald returns, she finds that her son has inherited his father's tendencies; he has contracted syphilis and has fallen in love with the maid, an illegitimate daughter of her late husband and therefore Oswald's own half-sister.

Felicity Kendal in Waste

Felicity Kendal in Waste, Old Vic, London, England, 1997

This is Felicity Kendal in the 1997 Old Vic production of Harley Granville Barker's Waste. She plays Amy O'Connell, a married woman pregnant as a result of extra marital dalliance with politician Henry Trebell. Amy decides to have an abortion, and dies as a result of the illegal operation, casting Trebell into a scandal which destroys his career. Reviews found Kendal's performance 'disturbingly intense'.

When Barker wrote the play in 1907, it was promptly banned by the Lord Chamberlain and was not licensed for public performance until 1920. The Times critic, having seen the play at a private club, took one view: 'The subject matter of 'Waste', together with the sincere realism with which it is treated, makes it, in our judgment, wholly unfit for performance under ordinary conditions'. However, in terms of sexual convention Waste contained nothing more offensive than many a Victorian melodrama. Many believed the real reason for the ban was the play's penetrating study of the cynicism and machinations of politicians. Indeed, on its revival in 1997, the Guardian welcomed the return of 'one of the best British political plays of the century'.

Man and Superman

Man and Superman, Birmingham Repertory Company, 1945

The Birmingham Repertory Theatre's first production in the newly proclaimed peace at the end of World War II was Shaw's Man and Superman. This inversion of the Don Juan story has, for once, 'the tragi-comic love chase of the man by the woman', rather than the other way round. John Tanner, discovering that his beautiful ward Ann has plans to marry him, flees. Ann follows him, and he gives in to her desire. Shaw satirises relations between the sexes, while exploring one of his recurring themes - that while man is the spiritual creator, woman is the 'life force' (to continue the species) that must always triumph over him.

The Birmingham Rep's 1945 production was directed by a then completely untried young director named Peter Brook. According to critic J C Trewin, Brook 'found subtleties in Shaw possibly unknown to the author himself, but, it appeared, thoroughly legitimate'. The role of Tanner was taken by a promising young actor called Paul Scofield, who would go on to become one of the most highly respected actors of his generation.

Costume for Russian peasant in Le Coq D'Or

Costume for Russian peasant in Le Coq D'Or by Natalia Goncharova (1881-1962), watercolour and body colour on paper, France, early 20th century. Museum no. E.294-1961

Costume for Lavinia in Androcles and the Lion

Costume for Lavinia in Androcles and the Lion by George Bernard Shaw, white silk decorated with geometric patterns, esigned by Albert Rutherston (1881-1953) St James's, London, England, 1913. Museum no. S.1354-1984

George Bernard Shaw's Androcles and the Lion was a parody of a successful melodrama The Sign of the Cross. In its treatment of the persecution of the Christians by the Romans, The Sign of the Cross found the perfect mix of religion and bloodshed which Hollywood later enthusiastically embraced in its biblical epics. Shaw, however, knew that the real appeal lay less in the religion than in the bloody spectacle of Christians being tortured and thrown to the lions. His version treats the subject with ruthless, witty logic and ends with the lion recognising Androcles as the person who had once taken a thorn out of his foot and the two of them waltzing around the arena together. Impressed, the Emperor pardons the Christians, who are quite put out at being denied martyrdom.

This stylish costume was designed by Albert Rutherston for Lillah McCarthy playing Lavinia, Shaw's Christian heroine, in 1913. It evokes the simplicity and elegance of Roman dress, with the overbodice and simple flowing skirt made in the lightest of silks hand-painted with geometric and stylised floral motifs.

Scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare, directed by Harley Granville Barker, Savoy Theatre, London, England, 1914

This production of A Midsummer Night's Dream directed by Harley Granville Barker was hugely influential on later directors because of its simplicity and poetic beauty. Granville Barker had been influenced in his approach to Shakespeare by William Poel, whose productions attempted to recreate the playing conditions of an Elizabethan playhouse.

Here we see George Burrows and Donald Calthrop as Oberon and Puck. The fairies were played by adults with only four children - unusual at the time. All were mysterious and slightly sinister, rather than the pretty, sentimental figures who danced to Mendelssohn's music in other productions. This decision provoked mixed responses from the press, from 'golden memories' to 'a Shakespeare nightmare'. For the most part the reviews were enthusiastic, praising both individual performances, and the production's attempt as a whole to 'get back to what the poet planned'.

Scene form A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare, directed by Harley Granville Barker, Savoy Theatre, London, England, 1914

This production of A Midsummer Night's Dream directed by Harley Granville Barker was hugely influential on later directors because of its simplicity and poetic beauty. Granville Barker had been influenced in his approach to Shakespeare by William Poel, whose productions attempted to recreate the playing conditions of an Elizabethan playhouse.

Here we see Titania's bower. The fairies were played by adults with only four children - unusual at the time. All were covered in gold paint and were mysterious and slightly sinister, rather than the pretty, sentimental figures who danced to Mendelssohn's music in other productions. This decision provoked mixed responses from the press, from 'golden memories' to 'a Shakespeare nightmare'. For the most part the reviews were enthusiastic, praising both individual performances, and the production's attempt as a whole to 'get back to what the poet planned'.