{"id":10642,"date":"2014-03-22T14:16:48","date_gmt":"2014-03-22T21:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=10642"},"modified":"2014-03-22T14:17:27","modified_gmt":"2014-03-22T21:17:27","slug":"shavian-comedy-arms-and-the-man-at-rvp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/shavian-comedy-arms-and-the-man-at-rvp\/","title":{"rendered":"Shavian Comedy Arms and the Man at RVP"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Kate Fox Marcom as Raina in Ross Valley Players production of Arms and the Man.<\/em> Photo by Robin Jackson.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 [rating:3] (3\/5 stars)<\/p>\n

Ross Valley Players just opened the critically acclaimed romantic comedy, Arms and the Man<\/em> by George Bernard Shaw.\u00a0 This play takes place during the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian war. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 Raina complies, though she thinks the man a coward, especially when he tells her that he does not carry pistol cartridges, but chocolates.\u00a0 When the battle dies down, Raina and her mother Catherine (Stephanie Saunders Ahlberg) sneak Bluntschli out of the house disguised in an old housecoat.<\/p>\n

The war ends and Sergius returns to Raina, but also flirts with her insolent servant girl, Louka (Robyn Grahn).\u00a0 Raina begins to find Sergius both foolhardy and tiresome but she hides it.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Bluntschli\u2019s return stirs several emotions in Raina and she starts to have feelings for her \u201cchocolate cream soldier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Director Cris Casell has reverence for Shaw\u2019s impressive combination of intellect, his perception of human nature, and high comedy.\u00a0 On this last note, \u201chigh comedy,\u201d 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\u2019s father.<\/p>\n

High praise goes to Ken Rowland\u2019s set design which is very colorful, Michael Berg\u2019s costumes, Ellen Brooks\u2019 lighting design and Billie Cox\u2019s sound design. George Bernard Shaw gave Leopold Jacobson the rights to adapt his play into what became the 1908 operetta, The Chocolate Soldier<\/em> with music by Oscar Straus.\u00a0 Bluntschli is the kind of soldier who sneaks into enemy lines and into a lady\u2019s boudoir armed with chocolates in place of cartridges.<\/p>\n

Arms and the Man<\/em> pokes satiric fun at the dangers, bravado and idealistic motives of romantic love.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 To order tickets, call 415-456-9555 or go online at www.rossvalleyplayers.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Coming up next at Ross Valley Players will be Other Desert Cities <\/em>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.<\/p>\n

Flora Lynn Isaacson<\/p>\n

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Ross Valley Players<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kate Fox Marcom as Raina in Ross Valley Players production of Arms and the Man. Photo by Robin Jackson. \u00a0 [rating:3] (3\/5 stars) Ross Valley Players just opened the critically…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10642","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-flora-lynn-isaacson"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"