Arms and the Man, romantic comedy in three acts by George Bernard Shaw, produced in 1894 and published in 1898. It is a fine spring morning; and the garden looks fresh and pretty. Please try again. Not quite what I expected, which was a blistering critique of war. As noted in the "Introduction" to these notes, the title of this play is ironic since it comes from the opening line of Virgil's Aeneid ("Of arms and the man I sing. Night. Arms and the Man was one of Shaw's first commercial successes. He gets injured when a rifle backfires and is taken to hospital. Like his other works, Arms and the Man questions conventional values and uses war and love as his satirical targets. Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, "About the Playwright: George Bernard Shaw", Marguerite Martyn, "College Girls Swear Real Swears in "Arms and Man,", "IMDB BBC production Arms and the man (1983)", "Odyssey Theatre / Theatre Under the Stars", https://web.archive.org/web/20050620092840/http://www.geocities.com/musictheater/chocolate/chocolate.html, A Glimpse of the Domesticity of Franklyn Barnabas, The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God, The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arms_and_the_Man&oldid=1014236300, Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz work identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, The most prestigious London revival was directed by, A second BBC radio production was produced in 1984 and broadcast on, A third BBC Radio production was broadcast on, An audio version was produced in 1999 by the, Another audio version was produced in 2006 by the, This page was last edited on 25 March 2021, at 23:04. Unable to add item to List. Arms and the Man is a comedy by George Bernard Shaw, whose title comes from the opening words of Virgil's Aeneid, in Latin: Arma virumque cano ("Of arms and the man I sing"). In the face of a new spate of mass shootings, President Biden is unveiling a series of executive actions today aimed at stemming gun violence. Arms and the Man - page 2 The Play Arms and the Man, one of Bernard Shaw’s earliest plays written when he was 38 years old, was first performed in London in 1894. In Act I the practical Swiss mercenary, later identified as … The play is set in the Petkoff household in Bulgaria and satirizes romantic ideas concerning war and heroism. LitCharts Teacher Editions. Raina and her fiancé Sergius are steeped in the romanticism of operettas and paperback novels. Amidst the cheers, one audience member booed. Find all the books, read about the author, and more. Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2021. Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2018, Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2018, Totally illegible - an absolute waste of $3.00, Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2019. Something went wrong. But as the man said in his inaugural address two-and-a-half months ago, Americans have never failed when we've acted together. Bluntschli gets a telegram informing him of his father's death: he must now take over the family business, several luxury hotels in Switzerland. Arma virumque cano ("Of arms and the man I sing"). Arms and the Man is concerned foremost with the clash between knowledge and ignorance, or, otherwise stated, between realism and romanticism. IndoEuropeanPublishing.com (July 21, 2019). Shaw will use the idea of the hero (Sergius) in war (the Serbo-Bulgarian war) … First produced on the London stage in 1894, Arms and the Man continues to be among the most performed of Shaw’s plays around the world. [8], The chocolate-cream soldier of the play has inspired a pejorative military use of the term. It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness. First produced in 1894, the play is set during the Serbo-Bulgarian war and tells the story of Raina Petkoff, a young Bulgarian woman, who is engaged to Sergius, a soldier away at war whom she idolizes. Major Petkoff discovers the photograph in the pocket of his old coat; Raina and Bluntschli try to remove it before he finds it again, but Petkoff is determined to learn the truth and claims that the "chocolate-cream soldier" is Sergius. Shaw replied, in characteristic fashion, "My dear fellow, I quite agree with you, but what are we two against so many? Raina's father (Major Paul Petkoff) and Sergius both return home. Jul 1st 1999. washington, dc I was not overwhelmed, so I decided to give another of his more famous works a try, for the first time. One of George Bernard Shaw’s most performed and studied plays, “Arms and the Man” is a classic example of Shaw’s comedic wit. He was called onto stage after the curtain, where he received enthusiastic applause. Instant downloads of all 1427 LitChart PDFs (including Arms and the Man). "It is probably the wittiest play he ever wrote, the most flawless technically, and in spite of being a very light comedy, the most telling." The play was first produced on 21 April 1894 at the Avenue Theatre and published in 1898 as part of Shaw's Plays Pleasant volume, which also included Candida, You Never Can Tell, and The Man of Destiny. Sergius challenges Bluntschli to a duel, but Bluntschli avoids fighting and Sergius and Raina break off their engagement, with some relief on both sides. Having seen it on stage, reading it just added to the incredulity how smart and witty GB Shaw was. Bluntschli says that he is still the same person, and the play ends with Raina proclaiming her love for him and Bluntschli, with Swiss precision, both clearing up the major's troop movement problems and informing everyone that he will return to be married to Raina exactly two weeks from that day. She reveals that she left a photograph of herself in the pocket of the coat, inscribed "To my chocolate-cream soldier", but Bluntschli says that he didn't find it and that it must still be in the coat pocket. While Raina is now unattached, Bluntschli protests that—being 34 and believing she is 17—he is too old for her. Raina and Catherine are shocked, especially when Major Petkoff and Sergius reveal that they have met Bluntschli before and invite him to stay for lunch (and to help them figure out how to send the troops home). Archived from the original on 20 June 2005. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 31, 2013. With Nick Berry, Niamh Cusack, Derek Fowlds, Bill Maynard. 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