Imelda Staunton and Jenny Seagrove, the great pretenders

George Bernard Shaw was born about the same time as Oscar Wilde in Dublin, but his plays have not worn as well as those of his flamboyant contemporary. What might have seemed shocking social commentary in Bernard Shaw’s day now seems often rather twee, whereas the appeal of Wilde’s work endures because really good humour transcends the generations.

The director Dominic Cooke has, however, pulled out all the stops to try to make Mrs Warren’s Profession – all about a woman who discovers her supposedly well-to-do family’s wealth has been based on prostitution – as interesting as it possibly can be. The focus of this is the casting of Imelda Staunton in the title role with her real-life daughter Bessie Carter (by the Downton Abbey actor Jim Carter) playing her daughter on stage.

Staunton is great – she is shaping up to be one of our great grand dame actresses in the manner of the late Maggie Smith – and her daughter Bessie is a proper actress in her own right and acquits herself well. There is a wonderful scene-stealing turn from Sid Sagar as a young beau and good old pros like Robert Glenister – playing a seedy older man who fancies his chances with Mrs Warren’s daughter – do their stuff admirably.

It’s all played out on Chloe Lamford’s set that delightfully evokes summer days and genteel living, but, for all their best efforts, there is a reason Mrs Warren’s Profession is seldom revived in the West End. What might have seemed shocking at the turn of the last century – it was originally banned by the Lord Chamberlain – can seem awfully boring in 2025.

Meanwhile, Jenny Seagrove has chosen wisely for her long-awaited return to the stage with Royce Ryton’s The Anastasia File. She brings a wonderful mix of aristocratic hauteur and vulnerability to the part of Mrs Manahan, the woman who claimed to her dying day to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia, the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, supposed survivor of the massacre of his family by Bolshevik revolutionaries. 

It’s a cleverly constructed piece with a fine ensemble that includes Simon Shepherd as a persistent police inspector inquiring into her story, Rosie Thomson as a possible in-law and Ashley D Gayle as her doctor.

Roy Marsden recognises as director that the story is strong and intriguing enough to be told without any unnecessary flourishes and leaves it to his excellent cast to do their stuff. One of those plays where you’re forever wondering what’s going to happen next. In the case of the production itself, I hope a West End transfer.