Arms and the Man

Arms and the Man takes place during the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War. Raina Petkoff (Katie Kendall), is a young Bulgarian woman engaged to Sergius Saranoff (Dennis Chapoval), one of the heroes of that war, whom she idealizes. One night, a Swiss voluntary soldier in the Serbian army, Captain Bluntschli (Bob K leinberg), 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 Catherine Petkoff (Toni Carmine) sneak him out of the house. The war ends and Sergius returns to Raina, but also flirts with her insolent servant girl Louka (Lynda Bruce-Lewis), who is engaged to the loyal house servant Nicola (Jim Lathan). Raina begins to find Sergius both foolhardy and tiresome, but she hides it. Bluntschli unexpectedly returns so that he can see her. Raina and her mother are shocked, especially when her father Major Paul Petkoff (Eric Henry) and Sergius reveal that they have met Bluntschli before and invite him to stay for lunch and to help them with troop movements. Later, left alone with Bluntschli, Raina realizes that he sees through her romantic posturing but that he respects her as a woman, as Sergius does not. She tells him that she had left a portrait of herself in the pocket of the coat, inscribed “To my chocolate-cream soldier.” What follows are antic twists and turns with lost portraits, challenges to duel, inheritances and declarations of love in a true Shavian delight not to be missed!