Enlarge Image

Arms and the Man

Shaw borrowed his title for his first major theatrical success from the Aeneid. First produced in 1894, Arms and the Man features a soldier who carries chocolate instead of bullets, something you’re not going to find in Virgil.

Margaret Groome directs U of M veterans and debuting actors in this Black Hole Theatre Company production. As she notes in the program, this is one of Shaw’s ‘pleasant’ plays, published in a collection with that name. So, even though the work attacks issues like war (the play opens with news of a battle) and class, it’s a gentle satire, charming as a Viennese waltz. (Shaw also published a collection he called Plays Unpleasant.)

Raina is the privileged daughter of one of the most prominent families in Bulgaria (the Bulgarian Petkoffs, you know) but her romantic notions are challenged when she meets Bluntschli, a Swiss mercenary fighting for the enemy. As Raina, Kelly Jenken captures her youthful idealism in the play’s opening moments.

Bluntschli is the perfect Shavian hero, inverting usual notions of honour and integrity with a fin-de-siecle insouciance. Stephen Currie plays Bluntschli as matinee idol: Ronald Colman, perhaps? Currie has terrific comedic timing and knows how to deliver a line. He swaggers across the stage and but still manages to demonstrate trademark Swiss efficiency in both his business and romantic affairs.

Of the rest of the cast, Julia Florek is solid as Raina’s mother. As Bluntschli’s rival, Sergius, Brennan Hakes needs to be more pompous. He also assumes some sort of trans-Atlantic accent unlike the other cast members who play his countrymen.

Groome’s is a traditional production, with period costumes and set, but it doesn’t entirely capture the lightness the play requires. Occasionally rushed line readings mean otherwise witty lines occasionally go flat. Also, Shavian socialism and class consciousness seem underdeveloped. Some delicious moments and but not quite enough Swiss chocolate.