George Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man is debuting Wednesday night at the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton.
Showtime is 7:30 p.m. A pay what you will opening night performance is set for Friday at 7:30 p.m.
The storyline is a play on the classic poem The Aeneid by Virgil, which opens with the line “Of Arms and the Man I Sing” dedicated to the glorification of war. By contrast, Shaw’s charming and effervescent romantic comedy plainly says: war is not a wonderful, romantic adventure.
Shaw’s play first opened in London in April 1894. (Neat April coincidence.)
Fifty years after the original production George Orwell wrote that Arms and the Man wears well because its moral still needs to be told. Contemporary audiences can identify with the conflicting desires of national defense and peacekeeping. Most can also relate to the struggles of finding and protecting romantic love.
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