Aromantic heart needs a pragmatic potion to cure its delusions about love, war and heroism. Just then walks in a rational head who aids the process of purging the unwanted bubble of high theories and bloated rhetoric with a dose of realistic intervention. The patient here is perky young Bulgarian woman Raina Petkoff, while the reliever is Swiss mercenary soldier Capt. Bluntschli from George Bernard Shaw’s widely-celebrated Arms and the Man.

Albeit set at the backdrop of a Serbo-Bulgarian War waged in 1885, the play is not caught in a time-warp. It might look like a period-piece through its visual portrayals such as costumes, vintage furniture and props. The text, however, peppered with terse, measured dialogues, subtle satire, hard-hitting wit and crispy humour appears contemporary.
Naseeruddin Shah and his Motley theatre troupe stormed the stage at Kolkata’s Kalamandir auditorium to showcase their English production. Having toured several other cities before regaling the Kolkata audience with a full-on entertaining act at its 20th show, this Shavian drama has already garnered a lot of critical acclaim and rousing applaud on its way.
Spearheaded by Leopard Creations, this late 19th-Century play was featured as part of the annual drama festival Stage Door, lately held in the culture capital after its successful run in 2011. The title is inspired from the opening words of the ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period, Virgil Latin, which goes as, Arma virumque cano, meaning, “I sing of arms and the man”.
“It is always wonderful to read the literary masters like Shaw and his contemporaries. He was one of the major proponents of realistic theatre, finding its root at the tail-end of the 19th Century,” shares Shah at the play’s press meet.
“He would often create ludicrous situations in the plot lines to appendage the same with a volley of instructions. In getting the better of his loyal legions of readers and discreet audiences, he would often stretch the humour-meter to the extent of citing musical notations or over-descriptive accounts. I guess, by employing this instrument, he indeed indulged in some pure fun. Those who religiously adhere to Shaw’s texts would inevitably come across his natural bent of devoting a paragraph or two to the detailed physical depiction of his dramatised personae or a cast of characters from a particular piece. So as a helmer, it is your discretion to retain or edit those specific portions to suit the stage adaptation,” the actor further elaborates.
Having closely followed the text and stuck to its scenes thoroughly, the three-act play was neatly summed up to reflect its well-rehearsed preparation. “I go by the script and I am not in favour of improvisation,” he sets the record straight. Essaying the role of Raina’s father, the old, affluent Maj. Petkoff, who doesn’t shy of vaunting his acquired wealth and hygiene-habits, Shah insists that the character is no doubt “funny, delightful and charming too.”
A riot of physical activities and a plethora of emotions are well balanced in the play. Men stride in deep red military uniforms, while women prance around draped in lace and finery. Add to this, the ample use of the given stage space right from the rear-end to the proscenium and down to the side-steps with two entry-exit passages.
Ascribing Shaw’s plays as “the plays of ideas with a great world view, which even reflects in his novels and short stories,” Shah confirms that often the Nobel laureate playwright would adopt a certain character as a mouthpiece to propagate his ideologies. In this under-discussed drama, Capt. Bluntschli breaks into the first scene as the dramatist’s spokesperson. The opening scene takes place inside Raina’s bedroom where the Swiss “chocolate-cream soldier” jumps in from the balcony and emerges as an absconding soldier, hounded by the Bulgarian Army close to his heels. First he pleads Raina to hide him so that his enemies don’t get a wind of his presence. The next moment, he threatens her by snatching off her cloak. And when Raina reproaches him for his unscrupulous behaviour, he wimps and weeps like a snubbed kid. He even asks her not to scare and scold him like an annoyed school teacher. He even confesses to carry chocolates inside his pockets instead of cartridges and candidly reveals that nine out of 10 soldiers are actually born fools upon this earth.
As Shah rightly puts in, “This is not your regular everyday boy-meets-girl love story. It’s about imparting an observation on heroism, wars, bravery, soldiers, valour, love and romance.”
While the male lead is aptly played by Amit Siyal, the heroine is a perfect fit for Ahana Kumar. Both do justice to their respective roles. Shivani Tanksale’s coquettish, ambitious maid Louka needs special mention for her stellar performance. Randep Hooda’s larger-than-life philandering Sergius Saranoff flip-flops between a pretentious, cowardly soldier and a mischievous flirt.
Expressing his desire to stage another popular comedy of this iconoclastic dramatist, Shah confirms, “I’d love to do Pygmalion. But it is only possible if you speak ditto in the English accents and dialects as mentioned in the play. Otherwise, it makes no sense. For the plot itself revolves around language, study of linguistics and nuances of philology.”
“Also the powerful play Saint Joan centering around the gritty martyr Joan of Arc, the national heroine of France. We would want to render that too sometime in near future,” chips in Ratna Pathak Shah, an ace actress.
Having enacted the character of Raina’s mother Catherine Petkoff, Pathak briefs, “My character represents the kind of woman existed at that time. Here I essay a chirpy, fidgety, anxious mother who is always keen to see her daughter meeting her perfect match. My part is woven around this bitter-sweet mother-daughter relationship where exists both dissent and affection to cause the intended comic fun and foolery. I mean there is no scope for soul-searching out here. We just want the audience to go and have a whale of a time. Incidentally, this is the first time that I’ve played a mother to a daughter. Because, it has always been a mother-to-the boys for me like in Samuel Beckett’s famous absurd drama, Waiting for Godot.”
The real-life chemistry of the couple comfortably trickled into their onstage husband-wife characters over here.