Shaw’s Mrs Warren’s Profession on the Brazilian Stage

Abstract

This article analyses the reception of Mrs Warren Profession in Brazil and is based on my book Bernard Shaw in Brazil: The Reception of Theatrical Productions, 1927-2013. (Peter Lang, 2016). My intent is to provide a general view of three productions, in the context of pertinent information about the political, economic, and cultural climate at the time they were staged in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. For several decades, theatre and theatre criticism in this country were precariously established; commercial considerations frequently prevailed over aesthetic concerns, and the theatregoer with no knowledge of English could have no guarantee that the translated text or adaptation bore any more than a passing resemblance to the original upon which it was based. In the 1950s, together with an acceleration of economic growth, there was an increasing development in its social and political infrastructure, such as the rise of the middle class, freely elected presidents, and the building of the new capital, Brasília, which resulted in a more optimistic view of Brazil’s place in the world. Consequently, in 1960, the Brazilian audience witnessed the best production of a Shavian play to date, presented by a highly skilled director, excellent actors, and reviewed by well-informed and articulate critics. It is my purpose to demonstrate that Mrs Warren’s Profession, produced in 1947, 1960 and 1998, reflects the trajectory of the Brazilian stage and its close relationship to the country’s socioeconomic and political status.