SUE Holderness and Christopher Timothy star in a brand new production of Bernard Shaw’s Mrs Warren’s Profession, which opens at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham this week before going on a national tour.

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.

Due to its frank portrayal of Mrs Warren’s profession, this rarely performed and groundbreaking play was originally banned in England by the Lord Chamberlain. Written in 1894, it was not allowed a public performance for the next thirty years and during its first performance in New York, the police stopped the play and arrested the cast.

George Bernard Shaw’s period drama is full of insight and humane understanding, with moments of comedy as well as pathos and ranks as one of his masterpieces alongside Pygmalion; Saint Joan and Man and Superman. The role of Mrs Warren is considered to be one of the greatest female acting roles and this production explores the choices women of the time were forced to make and is arguably one of the earliest feminist plays.

Mrs Warren’s Profession is on at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham from Friday 19 to June 27. For more details, visit www.everymantheatre.org.uk