Arms and the Man

Director Richard L. Sterne made his talented cast shine in a simple but effective production of George Bernard Shaw's comic classic about love and war at The Producers Club Theater. Sterne transferred Shaw's whimsical setting of Bulgaria to present day Albania but otherwise made few changes to the text. While it might be a bit early for Serbs and Kosovar Albanians to sit down to tea, the play's superb construction and language are a delight, and Shaw's message, that men are just as opportunistic in their politics as women are in love, as pleasantly cynical as ever.

The blocking was exemplary, and Sterne gave the right degree of latitude to the actors to result in excellent individual lcharacterizations within the tight ensemble essential for this sort of comedy. Featured French actress Elia Padolsky conveyed with aplomb the Petkoff daughter Raina's 23-going-on-17 manner. As Swiss mercenary soldier for the Serbian side and soon-to-be rich burgher Bluntschli, Daniel Kruse instantly penetrated her artifice with quizzical looks and offbeat remarks. Their unorthodox meeting in Raina's bedroom served only to cement their mutual fascination, to which her parents, master manipulator Catherine (Dannette Bock) and bumbling Major Paul Petkoff (John Marino), were only too happy to acquiesce.

The Petkoff maid, Louka (Tara Killian), used her carefully-honed feminine wiles to conquer Raina's erstwhile fiance Major Sergius, unceremoniously dumping fellow servant Nicola (Richard Kuehn). Into this top-rate ensemble only Darrell Dennis as Louka's prey did not always integrate himself well, in spite of equally strong acting skills.

Rebecca Dowd's costumes struck a good balance between economy of means and visual believability. Two sides of Jennifer Varbalow's set were given over to mountain panoramas, while she cleverly used the theater's rear and well-chosen furniture to suggest the different settings.