Naseeruddin Shah’s Motley Theatre’s production of this play has been expressly done to “expose children to Mr. Shaw’s exquisite use of words and his genius as a playwright”. Mr. Shah has directed this production for Prithvi Theatre’s Summertime festival and in keeping with his conviction, Naseer has used a young cast. 

 

‘Arms and the Man’, which is set in Bulgaria, is essentially a play about war and heroism. It tells the story of Major Sergius (Randeep Hooda), who was instrumental in Bulgaria winning the war against Austria. He is engaged to Raina Petkoff, (Faezeh Jalali) a young aristocratic girl, “full of heroic ideas from reading Byron and Pushkin”. While the aftermath of the war rages outside, a young Swiss soldier takes refuge in Raina’s chamber, and even though the soldiers come looking for him, Raina hides him and refuses to expose him. She does however, take her mother Catherine (Ratna Pathak Shah) into confidence. Catherine wisely insists that this must stay a secret between them and on no account should her father Major Petkoff (Naseeruddin Shah), or her fiancé Sergius be be told about this incident, or else he would surely call off the engagement. What follows is a riotous comedy of errors, and situations that ultimately have a happy ending. Sergius gets Louka the plucky maid, Raina ends up with Captain Bluntschli, the Swiss interloper. He also happens to have inherited a chain of hotels, and can therefore offer Raina the comforts she is used to. So all’s well that ends well, and everyone except Nicola, the house servant who had hoped to marry Louka, ends up happy and contented!

 

Naseeruddin Shah’s direction is tight and the sets are very cleverly designed. Everyone in the cast is convincing and does an adequate job, though special mention must be made of Faezeh Jalali, who is excellent as Raina.