Arms and the Man

Arms and the Man – Set during the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War, the play follows Raina Petkoff, a young, idealistic Bulgarian woman engaged to a war hero, Sergius Saranoff. Her romantic worldview is challenged when a pragmatic Swiss mercenary, Captain Bluntschli (whom she calls her “chocolate cream soldier”), takes refuge in her bedroom and reveals the unglamorous reality of war (e.g., professional soldiers carry chocolates instead of cartridges). The play ultimately concludes with the characters discarding their romantic illusions and forming more realistic, true-to-themselves relationships.