| Arms and the Man | |
|---|---|
| Produced by | George Bernard Shaw |
| Release date(s) | April 21, 1894 |
Arms and the Man is a comedy by George Bernard Shaw. Its title comes from the opening words of Virgil's Aeneid: "Arma virumque cano" (Of arms and the man I sing). (PP A.1.1) The play was first produced on April 21, 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. The play was one of Shaw's first commercial successes. He was called onto stage after the curtain, where he received enthusiastic applause. However, amidst the cheers, one audience member booed. Shaw replied, in characteristic fashion: "My dear fellow, I quite agree with you, but what are we two against so many?" Shaw's plays often question conventional values, and Arms and the Man is no exception. Its satirical targets are false notions of both war and love.
Plot summary
The play takes place during the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War. Its heroine, Raina (rah-EE-na), is a young Bulgarian woman engaged to Sergius Saranoff, one of the heroes of that war, whom she idealizes. One night, a Swiss voluntary soldier to the Serbian army, Bluntschli, bursts through her bedroom window and begs her to hide him, so that he is not killed. Raina complies, though she thinks the man a coward, especially when he tells her that he does not carry pistol cartridges, but chocolates. When the battle dies down, Raina and her mother sneak Bluntschli out of the house, disguised in an old housecoat. The war ends and Sergius returns to Raina, but also flirts with her insolent servant girl Louka (a soubrette role), who is engaged to the loyal house servant Nicola. Raina begins to find Sergius both foolhardy and tiresome, but she hides it. Bluntschli unexpectedly returns so that he can give back the old housecoat, but also so that he can see her. Raina is shocked, especially when her father and Sergius reveal that they have met Bluntschli before, and invite him to stay. Left alone with Bluntschli, Raina realizes that he respects her as a woman, as Sergius does not. She also tells him that she left a portrait of herself in the pocket of the coat, inscribed "To my chocolate-cream soldier," but Bluntschli says that he didn't see it. Louka tells Sergius that Raina is really in love with Bluntschli, so Sergius challenges him to a duel, but the men avoid fighting. Raina's father discovers the portrait in the pocket of his housecoat, which convinces Sergius to break off his engagement to Raina. He proposes marriage to Louka, and Nicola quietly lets Sergius have her. Bluntschli, recognising Nicola's dedication, offers him a job as a hotel manager. Bluntschli's father has just died, leaving him a grand inheritance of Swiss luxury hotels. Raina, having realized the hollowness of her romantic ideals and her fiancé's values, protests that she would prefer her poor "chocolate-cream soldier" to this wealthy businessman. Bluntschli says that he is still the same person, and the play ends with Raina proclaiming her love for him.
Adaptations
- A British film adaptation of 1932 was directed by Cecil Lewis. It starred Barry Jones as Bluntschli and Anne Grey as Raina.
- A filmed version of Arms and the Man in German entitled Helden ("Heroes") starring O. W. Fischer and Liselotte Pulver was runner up for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1958.
- Shaw sold the rights to adapt the play into a Viennese operetta, certain that it would never be produced. However, it became a phenomenal hit as The Chocolate Soldier (1908), and Shaw vowed never to sell musicalization rights again. (His estate eventually relented, allowing the production of My Fair Lady).
- A musical by Udo Jürgens, Helden, Helden, which is also based on Shaw's play, premiered at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna, Austria in 1973.
- The BBC produced a version in 1989, directed by James Cellan Jones, starring Helena Bonham Carter and Pip Torrens
External links
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| Passion Play • Un Petit Drame • Widowers' Houses • The Philanderer • Mrs. Warren's Profession • Arms and the Man • Candida • The Man of Destiny • You Never Can Tell • The Devil's Disciple • The Gadfly • Caesar and Cleopatra • Captain Brassbound's Conversion • The Admirable Bashville • Man and Superman • Don Juan in Hell • John Bull's Other Island • How He Lied to Her Husband • Major Barbara • Passion, Poison, and Petrifaction • The Doctor's Dilemma • The Interlude at the Playhouse • Getting Married • The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet • Press Cuttings • Fascinating Foundling • The Glimpse of Reality • Misalliance • The Dark Lady of the Sonnets • Fanny's First Play • Androcles and the Lion • Overruled • Beauty's Duty • Pygmalion • Great Catherine • The Music Cure • O'Flaherty V.C. • The Inca of Perusalem • Augustus Does His Bit • Macbeth Skit • Annajanska, the Bolshevik Empress • Heartbreak House • Back to Methuselah • A Glimpse of the Domesticity of Franklin Barnabas • Jitta's Atonement • Saint Joan • The Apple Cart • Too True to Be Good • How These Doctors Love One Another! • Village Wooing • On the Rocks • The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles • The Six of Calais • The Millionairess • Arthur and the Acetone • Cymbeline Refinished • Geneva • In Good King Charles' Golden Days • The British Party System • Buoyant Billions • Farfetched Fables • Shakes versus Shav • Why She Would Not |  |
