Arms and the Man

The moon rises over a small Bulgarian town. Clutching the photograph of her fiancé in dashing military attire, a beautiful young woman sinks into her bed with a romantic novel. Suddenly, gunshots ring out, and as if from the pages of the book, a desperate soldier bursts into the room. As he lights a match, we see he is jittery, exhausted, and yes, perhaps – even in this light – handsome?

And just so, Shaw pulls us into one of his most entertaining, deftly written comedies. As we get to know Raina, her deliciously eccentric family and household, her outrageous fiancé and, of course, the runaway soon to be her “chocolate cream soldier,” we witness Shaw’s artful skewering of militarism, heroism, so-called ‘higher love,’ and middle-class pretensions, all the while showing us that even the most deluded or foolish of us have honest feelings and desires.