I'm going to be very honest: the first time I listened to ARMS & THE MAN a few days ago, I was tempted to turn it off and go do something else. The first few minutes of it irritated me so much that it was almost more than I could bear.
This play was written over 100 years ago, and that could be one of the reasons I almost thought I didn't like it. For me, trying to read something written by Jane Austen or William Shakespeare is a great way to get me to get some much needed sleep. Authors of past time eras tended to stretch their dialogue out for miles. What takes someone a few seconds to say today took someone half a page to say yesterday.
I read the play back in March or April and I admit, I only really paid attention to the scenes where Bluntschli was present. The first time I listened to the LATW production, I found myself fast forwarding through the scenes where Sisto wasn't present. I'm awful, but I just didn't take to the play the first time around. I was pretty certain it would never be my cup of tea, and that I would end up writing a review about how boring and dated this story is.
As always, I made myself listen in a second time. Again, the first few minutes of the play were almost unbearable for me. Anne Heche as Raina, the heroine, got off to a shaky start. A lot of listeners said Hech was so terrible in PROOF (another LATW project she did with Sisto in 2003). In ARMS, she does so much sighing and gasping and squealing, ("Oh, Mother, Mother, Mother!!!") trying to capture the essence of a well-dressed young gentlewoman of 1800s Bulgaria, that I thought I was going to have to crawl under my desk in embarrassment for her. Teri Garr as Raina's mother Catherine, wasn't much better. The two women just started out completely overacting.
I made myself sit through this, gritting my teeth and flinching and wondering if, when Sisto appeared, he would be able to salvage the show. Luckily, things got much, much better. Sisto's performance as Bluntschli, is assured, and the audience present during this recording really enjoyed his comic timing. I also enjoyed the performances of Michael Winters as Raina's father, Major Petkoff and got a huge kick out of Al Espinoza as Sergius, Raina's conceited fiance. Espinoza and Sisto have quite a few hilarious dialogues together and I changed my opinion of this play completely.
The story is not very simple in my opinion, which is another reason I came to totally enjoy it. It is 1885 Bulgaria, and the War between Serbia and Bulgaria is raging. Raina is a young woman from a family who is well-off enough to have a library in their home. She is getting ready for bed, gushing on to a photograph of her fiance, who is away fighting, when she is surprised by a visitor, an enemy soldier. Exhausted and famished, he threatens her with his gun for a moment, before presenting himself truthfully as a person who wouldn't hurt a fly, a sweet tooth who eagerly devours some of Raina's chocolates. He talks about the war, saying a few things that are unflattering about Raina's betrothed, and she is unsure of whether to ridicule him, throw him out to be shot, or take pity on him. She and Catherine end up protecting the enemy soldier, whom they learn is not even Serbian, but Swiss, and a professional who simply fights in wars to get paid. Raina finds herself in a state of adoration for the man, much to Catherine's dismay. They keep Bluntschli under cover for the night, and the next day, send him away with Father's coat as a disguise.
The war eventually ends, and Major Petkoff and Sergius return home. In this portion of the play, the listener is given some snippets of the customs and norms of that society. Electricity was just starting to be used in homes, frequent bathing was thought of as tedious and unnecessary and even a habit of inferior folks, and people hid their true feelings behind propriety and consciousness of social class. We learn quite soon that Sergius and Luka, a servant girl in the Petkoff household, are in love and having an affair. And even while they still hold fast to their ingrained habit of pretending they're mad about one another in public, both Raina and Sergius ponder their fakeness in private. There is a subplot of the girl Luka being very strong-willed and refusing to subordinate herself to the Petkoff family, her hatred of being a lowly servant.
The play becomes increasingly engaging and enjoyable as it progresses, and now I realize that perhaps all that gushing and oohing and ahhing of Heche and Garr was part of the tongue-in-cheek tone that makes this play so funny. This is the first time I have ever been so surprised by a play that has been around for so long. Its sense of humor and irony are ageless, downright genius. I am thrilled to say I liked it so much that I hope that it will indeed be available someday on CD to buy. I would love to listen to it again and again. I'll give it an A.
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