Recently our play reading group finished "Mrs. Warren's Profession" and, as we often do, we obtained a copy of a film of the play we've read to show both to our group's participants (about 10+) as well as to any others who care to see it from the larger membership of our society (retired university peeps) -- those visitors added another 12. We viewed it this afternoon. The cast seemed excellent as did all the "sets" and costumes. However, IMO considerable liberties were taken with the play -- probably to make it less appropriate to a stage production and rather more flexible as in films -- which apparently involved also adding considerably more dialog. The DVD specifically said it had closed captioning but several experts in the Alumni Center (where we meet) could not get those to display. The actors were all English (with that accent) and spoke rather rapidly which made a good understanding of what was being said beyond reach for all but 3 of our viewers (of 22 total) who were native to Great Britain. I think the movie ran longer than the performance of the actual play. I no longer have my copy of the play available to check but it's my strong impression that a number of scenes wereRecently our play reading group finished "Mrs. Warren's Profession" and, as we often do, we obtained a copy of a film of the play we've read to show both to our group's participants (about 10+) as well as to any others who care to see it from the larger membership of our society (retired university peeps) -- those visitors added another 12. We showed it this afternoon. The cast seemed excellent as did all the "sets" and costumes. However, IMO considerable liberties were taken with the play -- probably to make it less appropriate to a stage production and rather more flexible as in films -- which apparently involved also adding considerably more dialog. The DVD specifically said it had closed captioning but several experts in the Alumni Center (where we meet) could not get those to display. The actors were all English (with that accent) and spoke rather rapidly which made a good understanding of what was being said beyond reach for all but 3 of our viewers (of 21 total) who were native to Great Britain. I think the movie ran longer than the performance of the actual play. I no longer have my copy of the play available to check but it's my strong impression that a number of scenes were greatly expanded, for instance the final scene between Vivie and her mother as well as a number of earlier scenes. While these were all completely in keeping with the overall plot they aren't with either Shaw's language or intent. Worthwhile to see but somewhat disappointing and less than 95% Bernard Shaw.
Review of Mrs. Warren's Profession
