Sergius (David Gallic) and Raina (Brittney Hancock) contemplate the perfect love in an early scene from Arms and the Man.



The Petkoffs gather around the table to welcome the conquering military hero, Sergius, back into the household, while Nicola, their somewhat faithful servant, waits to serve them.

ARMS AND THE MAN

George Bernard Shaw’s first successful play, Arms And The Man, has delighted audiences all over the world for more than a century. With gentle satire, the play makes fun of love and war and everything in between. Twilight Repertory Theatre presented Shaw’s classic comedy in a unique multimedia production that emphasized the enormous fun of the play.
Arms And The Man is the story of a Swiss mercenary who becomes a fugitive in the Serbo-Bulgarian War of 1885. He sneaks into a bedchamber to hide, only to find the beautiful daughter of an enemy officer. What ensues is a classic love triangle amidst some very silly people.
Largely because of Shaw's reputation for witty conversational plays in his later carreer, Arms and the Man is often presented as a play about language. Twilight Repertory didn't see it that way. We found a number of influences and resonances in the play, including Commedia Dell'Arte, melodrama, early silent films, Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, and music hall comedy of the late nineteenth century that led to what Americans recognize as Vaudeville. We attempted to bring these influences and resonances to bear on our production, which made it much more physical in its comedy and emphasized, we like to think, the true silliness of the characters.
Arms And The Man was Twilight Repertory Theatre’s fourth production in Portland.

Directed by John Duncan.
The cast included:
Catherine Petkoff -- Aimé Kelly
Raina Petkoff -- Brittney Hancock
Sergius Saranoff -- David Gallic
Paul Petkoff -- J.J. Hawkins
Nicola -- Max Blonde
Bluntschli -- Peter Ash
Louka -- Rosey Ybarra