ROUNDABOUT BLOG

When seeing Mrs. Warren’s Profession, it’s impossible to ignore the stunning image on the curtain that we see both as the show begins and between scenes. Here, the production’s Tony-winning Set Designer, Scott Pask, discusses that painting and its resonance for the world of the play:

Photograph of the curtain seen in Mrs. Warren’s Profession

The painting is inspired by a textile design created by Duncan Grant, who, with Vanessa Bell, was a key member of the Bloomsbury Group, an artistic community of men and women, all like minded artists, designers and writers contemporary to the period in England in which we have set the play. Their work is influenced by the arts and crafts and aesthetic movements and has clear modern aspects, and socially, their world views were progressive.

The show drop's imagery can also resonate with reference to Vivie's struggle to find herself, and understand her mother, and chart her course to becoming a modern woman. Her desires to earn an honest living, and to understand the means of what has sustained and protected her throughout her life, and supported her education, have ultimately become a moral quandary, and she is caught in a maze, so to speak.
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