THEATRE PREVIEW

JUNE 2026 | Volume 264

 

 

It's been a long time since we've seen a Shaw play in Vancouver. Leave it to United Players to put Shaw back on the local boards. Arms and the Man, from 1894, satirizes militarism and romanticism. It was one of Shaw's earliest successes and among his funniest and least wordy plays.

Lauren Taylor's brisk, very funny and charming UP production suggests that Shaw still belongs in the contemporary theatrical repertoire.

The setting is the Petkoff household in Bulgaria, 1885-86. Bulgaria is at war with Serbia, and the Petkoff women, Catherine (Lauren (Kirsten) Robek) and her daughter Raina (Hannah Everett), await the return of their warriors, paterfamilias Captain Paul Petkoff (Raphael Kepinski) and Raina's fiancé, Sergius (Brandon James Gilbert). A member of the retreating Serbian army, Captain Bluntschli (Jay Clift) takes shelter in Raina's room.

The play then jumps ahead a few months. The war is over, the men have returned, and Bluntschli comes back to visit. Raina is torn between her soldiers Sergius and Bluntschli, Sergius between Raina and servant girl Louka (Kiyomi Hoover), Louka between Sergius and the servant Nicola (Victor Vasuta).

Raina's romantic notions about brave, noble Sergius are challenged by Bluntschli's explanations of war's realities (Bluntschli is nothing but blunt) and Sergius' own disappointing reality. Louka's pragmatism in figuring out how to escape her servant status also pops some bubbles. And the whole play is framed by Shaw's British satire of Bulgarian claims to civilized status - many Bulgaria jokes about infrequent washing and rare libraries (funny to us but, according to Wikipedia, not so funny to Bulgarians when John Malkovich staged the play at Bulgaria's national theatre).

Bluntschli is the Shavian centrepiece, a Swiss soldier-for-hire who would rather be a lover than a fighter, although Shaw has the last laugh, making clear that Bluntschli's ultimate triumph has more to do with his inheritance than his morality or intelligence.

In any case Clift gives Bluntschli just the right likable, matter-of-fact solidity and self-effacing modesty: the chocolate-cream soldier as hero. Everett is also very good as Raina, sufficiently self-conscious of her spinniness to make the reasonable choices when they matter. Kepinski's big-voiced Petkoff takes comic honours, and Robek's whirligig Catherine is almost as funny. As Sergius, Gilbert has a little trouble keeping up with these four, but his adorable incompetence finally wins us over.

Director Taylor does a nice job pacing the show and getting her cast to play to all three sides of the audience. She's also gotten good work from her designers: Alison Green's set (the scene change gets applause), Ben Paul's lighting, Victoria McNeill's sound (especially the realistic gunfire) and Brodie Davison's costumes, particularly Raina's dress and hat ensemble: a vision in pink.

Arms and the Man is an altogether delightful show, well-acted and directed, pretty much what we've come to expect these days from United Players.

 

 

 

 

 

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