“What flirts with light comedy is actually a heavy social commentary on the choices women don’t have. Shaw’s play still resonates. As do these performances.”
Con Nats
4 Red lights
NT Live have brought back the Bernard Shaw classic with some inspired casting.
It’s Victorian England and Vivie Warren (Bessie Carter) is a feisty no nonsense lady. She’s a mathematical genius with a fierce independent streak that is out of place for women at the time. Her mother, Kitty Warren (Imelda Staunton) is coming to visit which is a recurring rarity in her life. Vivid knows little of her mother or the world. She seems to find solace in hard work and numbers.
A gentle friend of Mrs Warren, Praed (Sid Sagar) visits first and finds Vivie to be an astonishing lady, but knows little about her mother. Soon Mrs Warren arrives with Sir George Crofts (Rob Glenister) and starts spouting her views of the world. She is old school and has no time for talk of independence and seems ready to trade her daughter’s future to the best suitor. Her friend George seems to take an uncomfortable interest in Viv. A local lad, Frank Gardent (Rueben Jospeh) has a more natural interest which Viv reciprocates. But secrets still lurk about Viv’s father and Mrs Warren’s profession.
The second act is full of revelations. Shaw’s script is clever as most of the chats are asides from the main action. He’s showing that truth lurks in the shadows and false fronts are the main show. It is obvious that Kitty’s profession is the oldest profession and her passionate explanation presents a very take. Women were forced into these jobs not out of choice or lack of morals, but by financial necessity.
These themes are debated openly in the third act of confrontations. Mrs Warren represents an era of women playing the patriarchal system of falsehoods and respect for wealth, no matter how gained. Vivie wants to establish an independence and respect. The two clash viciously through the lense of classic mother-daughter divide. It’s visceral.
One of the reasons these mother-daughter scenes work so brilliantly is because Bessie Carter is Imelda Staunton’s real-life daughter. Staunton traverses from bullying to empathetic to tragic with gusto. Carter goes a full circle. She has to decide between wealth and a shallow respect not normally saved for women at the time, for integrity and solitude. Both have their costs and these themes are still weighty today.
The support cast is excellent and Kevin Doyle as the Reverend Samuel Gardner provides nice comic relief. The staging uses a revolving stage, dark lighting and a silent cast of women in white slips to remind us and Vivie of the victims of Mrs Warren’s profession. Dominic Cooke’s direction keeps the play pacy with only a few pregnant pauses. What flirts with light comedy is actually a heavy social commentary on the choices women don’t have. Shaw’s play still resonates. As do these performances.
4 Red Lights
Con Nats, On The Screen
