When John Johnson, artistic director at Classical Theatre Company, decided to program George Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man, it was right around the time the US decided to go to war with Iran.
“That really pushed it over the finish line,” he said of his decision. “And it’s only been reinforced over the course of the last several months,” as the fighting in the Middle East has continued.
Shaw’s play premiered in London in the spring of 1894. The action is set against the Serbo-Bulgarian War, two weeks of fighting that broke out after Bulgaria united with Eastern Rumelia, which upset the balance of power in the Balkans. Bulgaria defeated Serbia in the conflict, and its larger state was formally recognized by Europe and the Ottoman Empire.
With that historical context, it isn’t a surprise that Johnson was thinking about the play. But there were other reasons, too.
“The situation in Israel and Gaza and the situation in Ukraine with Ukraine and Russia obviously was what put this on the radar for us,” he explains. “And then now the escalation of things in the Middle East, as well as the Houthis, Saudi Arabia, et cetera, et cetera.”
The slog of keeping up with the worldwide conflicts is evident in Johnson’s voice as he talks. But that’s also part of the point. Shaw’s play, he says, has a lot to tell us about war weariness, especially when set against the lens of a country romanticizing fighting and those who do it.
“The character of Bluntschil is a veteran of many battles and is utterly pragmatic,” he says. “There’s no romance about war for him. He’s a mercenary, and has become quite cynical and jaded about the entire situation. That contrasts distinctly with Sergius, who is this preening peacock who fancies himself a war hero, who has basically only survived war and is only considered a hero out of sheer dumb luck.”
Bluntschil, Johnson says, is the one telling everyone else, this isn’t what you think of this.
Enter the character of Raina, Sergius’ finance. The wealthy Bulgarian woman believes totally in the war cause, supporting the soldiers without considering their daily existence. All that is upended when Bluntschil shows up on her doorstep as his battalion is in retreat.
“She goes from someone who’s kind of blindly believed in this grand romance, these ideals that have been put forth that she just accepts as fact and, and how things should be,” Johnson explains. “By the end of the play, she has come to a different realization.”
Johnson likes the lawyers that Shaw has brought to the play, which was the playwright’s first commercial success. In addition to exploring the reality of war, it tackles how the patriarchy shapes the roles of women and what is expected of them. For all its heavy, heady concepts, however, Arms and the Man is actually funny.
“This is one of his funniest plays,” says Johnson. “A certain character or a couple of characters and the audience know something that other characters on stage don’t. In act one, Bluntschl is hiding in the same room as the people who are looking for him and there’s just a tremendous amount of farce.”
He’s hoping audiences see it that way, too. Last year, the company staged Elektra and Othello, a season he christened as “Sad plays for sad days,” he wanted to bring more levity to the stage for the opening show.
“I hope they’re entertained, they have a good laugh and appreciate not just the physical comedy and the situational comedy that comes with the farce, but also the brilliant language and the plays on words that Shaw is so famous for.”
Performances are scheduled for October 22 (preview) with opening night October 23 through November 7 at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Sundays at the DeLuxe Theater, 3303 Lyons Avenue. For more information, call 713-963-9665 or visit classicaltheatre.org. $25-$35.