The Theater Department at Washington and Lee University begins its 1999-2000 season with George Bernard Shaw's delightfully wicked comedy, Arms and the Man . 4 p.m. Serbia has attacked a neighboring country and been defeated. Fugitive Serbs are being pursued through towns emptied of men.
Sporadic gunfire threatens the lives of women cowering in their bedrooms.
It sounds more like a story seen this year on CNN, than a play written over a century ago. It is, however, the background setting for George Bernard Shaw's comedy, Arms and the Man. The show offers its audiences insight into the romantic notion of war held in the late 1800's and the danger of posturing and illusions made in connection with love, courtship and war. It makes for interesting and very witty dialogue among the characters as the young lady tries to make her decision. When it comes to courtship and marriage, Shaw puts all the power solely in the woman's hands.