Kate Fox Marcom as Raina in Ross Valley Players production of Arms and the Man. Photo by Robin Jackson.
[rating:3] (3/5 stars)
Ross Valley Players just opened the critically acclaimed romantic comedy, Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw. This play takes place during the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian war. It’s heroine, Raina Petkoff (Kate Fox Marcom) is a young Bulgarian woman engaged to Sergius Saranoff (Peter Warden), one of the heroes of the war who she idealizes.
One night, a Swiss mercenary soldier in the Serbian Army, Captain Bluntschli (Philip Goleman) bursts through her bedroom window and first threatens Raina, then begs her to hide him so 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 (Stephanie Saunders Ahlberg) sneak Bluntschli out of the house disguised in an old housecoat.
The war ends and Sergius returns to Raina, but also flirts with her insolent servant girl, Louka (Robyn Grahn). Raina begins to find Sergius both foolhardy and tiresome but she hides it. Bluntschli unexpectedly returns to bring back the old housecoat and to see Raina. Raina and her mother are shocked especially when her father, the distinguished Major Paul Petkoff (Ron Dailey) and Sergius reveal they met Bluntschli before and invite him to stay for lunch and to help them with their troop maneuvers. Bluntschli’s return stirs several emotions in Raina and she starts to have feelings for her “chocolate cream soldier.”
Director Cris Casell has reverence for Shaw’s impressive combination of intellect, his perception of human nature, and high comedy. On this last note, “high comedy,” she is a little over the top in her direction. Most of the cast is too much like cartoon characters with the exception of Philip Goleman as Bluntschli when she pictures him a realist. Kate Fox Marcom is appealing as Raina and Warden steals the show as Major Sergius Saranoff. Ron Dailey is impressive as Raina’s father.
High praise goes to Ken Rowland’s set design which is very colorful, Michael Berg’s costumes, Ellen Brooks’ lighting design and Billie Cox’s sound design. George Bernard Shaw gave Leopold Jacobson the rights to adapt his play into what became the 1908 operetta, The Chocolate Soldier with music by Oscar Straus. Bluntschli is the kind of soldier who sneaks into enemy lines and into a lady’s boudoir armed with chocolates in place of cartridges.
Arms and the Man pokes satiric fun at the dangers, bravado and idealistic motives of romantic love.
Performances are held Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. All performances take place at the Barn Theatre, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Ross, CA. To order tickets, call 415-456-9555 or go online at www.rossvalleyplayers.com.
Coming up next at Ross Valley Players will be Other Desert Cities a 2012 Pulitzer Prize Drama finalist, also nominated for five Tony awards written by John Robin Baitz and directed by Phoebe Moyer, May 16-June 15, 2014.
Flora Lynn Isaacson
Ross Valley Players
