Arms and the Man

Arms and the Man
Written by	George Bernard Shaw
Date premiered	April 21, 1894 (1894-04-21)
Place premiered	Avenue Theatre

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" (I sing of arms and the man).

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?"

‘Arms and the Man’ is a humorous play which shows us the futility of war and deals with the hypocrisies of human nature in an extremely jocular fashion.

Subsequent productions

• The first Broadway production opened on September 17, 1894 at New York City's Herald Square Theatre. Since then there have been six Broadway revivals, two of which are listed below.
• The most prestigious London revival was directed by John Burrell for The Old Vic Company at the New Theatre, which opened on 5 September 1944, starring Ralph Richardson (Bluntschli), Margaret Leighton (Raina Petkoff), Joyce Redman (Louka), and Laurence Olivier (Major Sergius Saranoff). "Olivier thought Sergius a humbug, a buffoon, a blackguard, a coward, 'a bloody awful part' until Tyrone Guthrie said he would never succeed in the role until he learned to love Sergius. Olivier, spurred and moustachioed, was high camp": Robert Tanitch.
• A revival production ran at New York City's Arena Theatre from October 19, 1950 to January 21, 1951, for a total of 108 performances. The cast included Lee Grant as Raina, Francis Lederer as Bluntschli and Sam Wanamaker as Sergius.
• Marlon Brando's final stage appearance was in Arms and the Man in 1953. He gathered friends who were fellow actors into a company for a summer stock production. He chose to play Sergius while William Redfield starred as Bluntschli.
• The play has been produced 5 times at the Shaw Festival, in 1967, 1976, 1984, 1996, and 2006.
• The play was produced in 1982 at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, with Brian Bedford as Bluntschli and Len Cariou as Sergius.
• In 1985 John Malkovich directed a revival production at New York City's Circle in the Square Theatre starring Kevin Kline as Bluntschli (later replaced by Malkovich after Kline's departure), Glenne Headly as Raina and Raúl Juliá as Sergius. The production ran from May 30 to September 1, 1985, for a total of 109 performances.
• The BBC produced a made-for-TV version in 1989, directed by James Cellan Jones, starring Helena Bonham Carter as Raina, Pip Torrens as Bluntschli, Patrick Ryecart as Sergius and Patsy Kensit as Louka.
• In 2011 the play was presented by the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, The Seattle Public Theater in Seattle, Washington state, and the Constellation Theatre Company in Washington DC.

Adaptations

The scene in The Chocolate Soldier in which Bumerli (the equivalent of Bluntschli) enters the bedroom of Nadina (the equivalent of Raina), in a 1910 London production

When Shaw gave Leopold Jacobson the rights to adapt the play into what became the 1908 operatta The Chocolate Soldier with music by Oscar Straus, he provided three conditions: none of Shaw's dialogue, nor any of his character's names, could be used; the libretto must be advertised as being a parody of Shaw's work; and Shaw would accept no monetary compensation. In spite of this, Shaw's original plot, and with it the central message of the play, remained more or less untouched.

Shaw despised the result, calling it "a putrid opera bouffe in the worst taste of 1860", but grew to regret not accepting payment when, despite his opinion of the work, it became a lucrative international success. When Shaw heard, in 1921, that Franz Lehár wanted to set his play Pygmalion to music, he sent word to Vienna that Lehár be instructed that he could not touch Pygmalion without infringing Shaw's copyright and that Shaw had "no intention of allowing the history of The Chocolate Soldier to be repeated"(only after Shaw's death was Pygmalion eventually adapted by Lerner and Loewe as My Fair Lady).

A British film adaptation was directed in 1932 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.

An audio version was produced by the BBC starring Sir Ralph Richardson as Captain Bluntschli and Sir John Gielgud as Major Sergius Saranoff. A second BBC audio version was produced in 1984 and broadcast on BBC Radio 7 in February 2009 starring Andrew Sachs as Captain Bluntschli and Gary Bonds as Major Saranoff. A third version was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on March 21, 2010 starring Rory Kinnear as Captain Bluntschli, Lydia Leonard as Raina and Tom Mison as Major Saranoff. This production was produced by Nicolas Soames and directed by David Timson.

An audio version was produced in 1999 by the CBC starring Simon Bradbury as Captain Bluntschli, Elizabeth Brown as Raina and Andrew Gillies as Major Saranoff.

An audio version was produced in 2006 by the L.A. Theatre Works starring Jeremy Sisto as Captain Bluntschli, Anne Heche as Raina and Teri Garr as Catherine.

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.

External links

• The script of Arms and the Man at Project Gutenberg
• Arms and the Man at the Internet Broadway Database
• Internet Movie Database entry for Arms and the Man
• McNabb, Jim. "Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw : Study Guide". Ottawa: National Arts Centre. http://www.artsalive.ca/pdf/eth/activities/arms_guide.pdf. Retrieved 2011-04-12. 
• Smith, Nicole. "Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw : Class and Social Critique in the Play". http://www.articlemyriad.com/51.htm. Retrieved 2011-04-12.