Arms and the Man Author:Bernard Shaw Full Length Play, Satire/Political Satire - 5m, 3f — One of Bernard Shaw's most glittering comedies, Arms and the Man is a burlesque of Victorian attitudes to heroism, war and empire. In the contrast between Bluntschli, the mercenary soldier, and the brave leader, Sergius, the true nature of valour is revealed.... more » Shaw mocks deluded idealism in Candida, when a young poet becomes infatuated with the wife of a Socialist preacher. Romatic enough to have inspired an Oscar Strauss operetta, The Chocolate Soldier, continues to enchant with its wit and dazzling comedic reversals.
The play starts with gunfire on a dark street in a small provincial town. The romantic and willful Raina is about to begin her true-life adventure by sheltering the handsome fugitive Bluntschli, enemy of her equally handsome fiance Sergius. The men may all be heroes -- or fools, since this is Shaw's comic view of Balkan chivalry -- but the women are definitely more than their match.« less