Arma virumque cano. “Arms and the man I sing”. George Bernard’s Shaw’s first commercial success premiered at the Avenue Theatre in 1894 and first published four years later as a section of Shaw’s “Plays Pleasant”
A comedy that derived from the opening lines of Virgil’s Aeneid, “Arms and the Man” centers on Raina Petkoff, a young Bulgarian woman living through the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War who finds herself facing a pistol after a Swiss soldier climbs into her window and orders her not to raise the alarm. Rather than surrender the soldier to searching troops, Raina hides Captain Bluntschli, only to be shocked by his pragmatic views on war that stand in such sharp contrast to her own idealism. For the second time that night Raina decides to protect the Captain, plotting with her mother to help him escape. Despite the ideals she believed in and the war that surrounds her, she cannot quite forget the soldier she saved…
“Arms and the Man” demonstrates why Shaw is remembered as among the most significant and influential playwrights in the history of English theatre. His play navigates the futility of war with graceful humor. Remembered as one of Shaw’s wittiest plays, “Arms and the Man” is as much fun to read as it is to watch.
A comedy that derived from the opening lines of Virgil’s Aeneid, “Arms and the Man” centers on Raina Petkoff, a young Bulgarian woman living through the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War who finds herself facing a pistol after a Swiss soldier climbs into her window and orders her not to raise the alarm. Rather than surrender the soldier to searching troops, Raina hides Captain Bluntschli, only to be shocked by his pragmatic views on war that stand in such sharp contrast to her own idealism. For the second time that night Raina decides to protect the Captain, plotting with her mother to help him escape. Despite the ideals she believed in and the war that surrounds her, she cannot quite forget the soldier she saved…
“Arms and the Man” demonstrates why Shaw is remembered as among the most significant and influential playwrights in the history of English theatre. His play navigates the futility of war with graceful humor. Remembered as one of Shaw’s wittiest plays, “Arms and the Man” is as much fun to read as it is to watch.
