About the work
Comedy in three acts by George Bernard Shaw, first performed on 21 April 1894 at the Avenue Theatre, London, under the management of actress and producer Florence Farr. The original title, "Arms and the Man", quotes the opening line of Virgil's "Aeneid" while signalling the irony with which Shaw dismantles heroic notions of war and love, set against the Serbo-Bulgarian War of 1885.
Plot
Fleeing a lost battle on the Serbian side, Swiss mercenary Bluntschli climbs into the bedroom of young Raina Petkoff. Instead of the hero she expected, Raina finds a matter-of-fact professional soldier who thoroughly deflates her romantic notions of war and of her fiancé, the officer Sergius. When the war ends and Bluntschli returns, Raina's engagement to Sergius dissolves in favour of the maid Louka, while Raina chooses the unromantic but honest Bluntschli.
Cultural significance
In 1908, initially against Shaw's wishes, Oscar Straus turned the play into his operetta "Der tapfere Soldat" (internationally known as "The Chocolate Soldier"), which became his best-known score. A 1921 Vienna production drew diplomatic protests from Bulgarian students over its portrayal of Bulgarian characters.