MRS Warren’s Profession – George Bernard Shaw’s play that was deemed so scandalous it was banned for 30 years – comes to Salisbury Playhouse tomorrow until Saturday, July 4 starring Sue Holderness and Christopher Timothy.

Vivie Warren, a young Cambridge graduate, is horrified to learn that her education and lavish lifestyle were entirely funded by her mother’s career in the world’s oldest profession.

Mother and daughter are properly acquainted for the first time after Vivie graduates from college and her mother arrives with a potential suitor for her intelligent and independent daughter.

But the truth about Mrs Warren’s profession is revealed and Vivie must come to terms with her mother’s career which has given her all the opportunities and chances she never had.

Full of insight and humane understanding, the play criticises hypocrisy towards prostitution and the lack of opportunities for women in Victorian England.

It also blurs the lines between sexual attraction and marriage proposals at a time when a woman gave all her property and fortune to her husband on the day they wed.

Shaw wrote Mrs Warren’s Profession in 1894 but the ground-breaking play was banned for the next 30 years by the Lord Chamberlain.

During its first performance in New York the police stopped the play and arrested the cast.

But once the censorship was lifted, this frank and moving play became critically acclaimed, ranking alongside Bernard Shaw’s other masterpieces such as Pygmalion and St Joan.

This revival of Mrs Warren’s Profession is being brought to Salisbury Playhouse by Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham as part of a national tour.

The production stars Sue Holderness (Only Fools and Horses and The Green Green Grass) and Christopher Timothy (All Creatures Great and Small, Doctors and Dial M for Murder) alongside Emily Woodward, Christopher Bowen, Ryan Saunders and Richard Derrington.

For tickets, call 01722 320333 or visit www.salisburyplayhouse.com.