Showing results for "Arms" in English, Irish, Scottish & Welsh

This witty masterpiece combines high comedy with social commentary as it deflates romantic misconceptions of love and warfare. First produced on the London stage in 1894, Arms and the Man is one of the most frequently acted and studied of Shaw's plays.

Arms and the Man is a comedy by George Bernard Shaw that takes place in 1885, during the Serbo-Bulgarian War. Raina Petkoff is engaged to the gallant Sergius Saranoff, hero of the recent Bulgarian victory over the Serbs. But she is distracted by the abrupt arrival of Captain Bluntschli, a Swiss mercenary who fought for the Serbian army. He takes refuge in her bedroom after the battle and although he is initially threatening, reveals that he carries chocolate creams instead of bullets. Will Raina marry the posturing Sergius or the chocolate cream soldier?

The action of this play, which occurs during a conflict on the Balkans, is initiated by the discovery by Raina, the daughter of an military officer, of a man who has taken refuge in her bedroom. Unfortunately, the man belongs to the opposing army. How will she deal with a notional enemy who behaves with such quixotic courtesy?

Milkmaid Rhoda Brooks cannot control her jealousy of Gertrude - a beautiful woman who has just married a rich farmer. So when Gertrude appears in her dream, she cannot help but reach out and grab the arm of the woman she wishes she was. As Gertrude's arm begins to wither away in real life and no physician is able to help her, she must turn to a conjurer... Considered one of Hardy's most successful short stories, 'The Withered Arm' is unmissable for those who enjoyed Laura Purcell's ´The Silent Companions´.