He is the “hero of the hour, the idol of the regiment.” The play opens in Raina’s luxurious bedroom-beautifully captured by Se Hyun Oh’s scenic design and Wen Ling Liao’s lighting-where Raina has just climbed into bed when an intruder suddenly bursts into the bedroom through an unlocked window. Raina and her mother Catherine (Marcia Pizzo) are delirious with joy over news from the front, sent by the father of the house, that Raina’s fiance, Sergius, has led a great victory. All the pomp, pretense and disastrous ideology of soldiering are ripe for skewering by Shaw’s brisk lines, which retain surprising energy in the hands of director Nike Doukas’ skillful cast. Raina is engaged to marry a military officer involved in what they all believe is a heroic battle against the enemy. Set in the late 19th century during a war raging between Serbia and Bulgaria, Shaw’s satire about the glorification of love and war begins in the bedroom of Raina Petroff (Elinor Gunn), daughter of a wealthy Bulgarian family. The jewelbox production is beautifully mounted on a shallow stage which moves the action, the crisp dialogue, and the gorgeous costuming close to the audience. Nothing and no one is safe from his juicy pen-love, war, men, women, the military, the bourgeoisie, even the Swiss. Jewel Theatre has made this daring choice for its highly entertaining season opener.įew theater-goers aren’t familiar with the wicked wit of Shaw, the man whose Pygmalion gave us My Fair Lady.
Can a satirical anti-romantic comedy written over 100 years ago-and not by a man named Shakespeare-have anything to say to us today? It can if the play is Arms and the Man, and the playwright the acerbic Nobel Laureate George Bernard Shaw.
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