Culture Writer
Am I slow? I thought I was thoroughly ready to see Arms and the Man for a second time, the first being 12 years ago. But the play has so much going on that once again I feel I missed a lot.
It’s not that the action shifts about in harried fashion in this Long Beach Playhouse production. Nor does it progress with the speed of a bullet train. There are simply so many facets to George Bernard Shaw’s rich dialogue that the primary message, which speaks against the glorification of war, is easily lost.
While we are busy focusing on romantic relationships, class distinctions, personal honor and Shaw’s dazzling repartee, we barely notice the soldiers’ inner struggles, which might be making the most momentous statement of all.
Should Shaw have made the task of processing all he offers to us easier? Certainly not. The work is ours to do, even if it means reading the play on our own.
Arms and the Man begins in the bedchamber of lovely 23-year-old Raina Petkoff (Hallie Mayer), whose family are wealthy Bulgarian nationalists. The setting is Bulgaria, about 1885. Raina’s father, the oft-befuddled Major Petkoff (Mitchell Nunn), and fiance Sergius (Alex Bennett) have gone off to meet the militarily superior Serbs in battle. A Swiss mercenary, Captain Bluntschli (Michael J. Knowles), fighting with the Serbs and fleeing Bulgarian soldiers, breaks into Raina’s room seeking safety. She is of course inspired to give him refuge.
In an endearing quirk of the play’s farcical nature, the attractive Bluntschli admits to Raina that he is accustomed to packing chocolates rather than ammunition. She gives the starving man chocolates, which he consumes immediately, and dubs him her “chocolate cream soldier.”
A comedy that turns our perception of glory in war on its head, Arms and the Man does not depend on stereotypes. Rather, its military men are arguably the most complex characters in the play. For instance, although the play deflates Sergius’s heroism before our eyes by revealing his ineptness in battle, the man’s admission of his failure and foolhardiness make him all the more honorable. Honorable enough to make him a suitable mate for impetuous lady’s maid Louka (Charlotte Williams), who declares she “has not the heart of a servant.”
Knowles’s Bluntschli, by contrast, couldn’t be more dreamy. He is competent, charismatic, good-natured, respectful, manly and the picture of humility. He and Mayer’s coquettish Raina develop a sizzling chemistry that generates ample sparks.
Arms and the Man not only comments on the nature of war, classes and the roles in society of men and women, but it exposes real human beings reconciling themselves to their own limitations.
Perhaps this begins to explain why a comedy such as Arms and the Man is difficult to digest in one dose. However, the fact that so much occurs on so many different planes, and successfully so, is undoubtedly the reason why Arms and the Man is a classic among plays.
Anthony Galleran directs his winning cast with a keen sense of romance, honor, and enthusiasm, as well as a good peppering of humor. But it is unfortunate for this production that very little affection is demonstrated between Raina’s mother Catherine (Sarah Genevieve Green) and Nunn’s Petkoff.
Doyle Smiens plays the philosophically adept servant Nicola, who fights hard to keep Louka from rebelling against her servitude.
On opening night, audience members were so smitten by these characters and their situations that they were virtually rooting for their favorable outcomes. You will, too.
Arms and the Man continues on the Long Beach Playhouse Mainstage through Dec. 5. General-admission tickets are $24, senior tickets are $21, and student tickets are $14 with valid student ID. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, with Sunday matinees at 2pm. The Long Beach Playhouse is located at 5021 E. Anaheim St. Call (562) 494-1014, option 1, for reservations and information. Tickets are also available at.lbplayhouse.org .
