CSC theatre to stage classical play, 'Arms and the Man'

The director, Roger Mays, describes the play as an anti-war romance. It also has been called a comedy and a drama. It is set during the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War.

The heroine, Raina Petkoff, is a young Bulgarian woman whose father is a major in the Bulgarian army and she is engaged to one of the heroes of the war. But one night, a Captain Bluntschli, a Swiss volunteer in the rival Serbian army, bursts through a window into her bedroom and begs her to hide him so he won’t be killed.

Raina complies, although she thinks Bluntschli is a coward, especially when he tells her he does not carry pistol cartridges, but chocolates.

The plot becomes intriguing when Raina’s fiancée, Sergei Saranyov, returns from the war after having a chance encourter with Bluntchli during a prisoner exchange and learns that he was hidden by a young woman and her mother during the war. Not too long afterwards, the Swiss shows up at the Petkoff home to return a housecoat he had borrowed while leaving his hiding place.

Erika DeBoer of Morrill is cast as Raina (rah-EE-na) while Shelley Fiester of Lake George, Colo., portrays her mother, Catherine. Cody Griebel of Hot Springs, S.D., plays the part of Raina’s father. Dan Giffee of Dawson is cast as Capt. Bluntschli and Lars Monson of Benkelman has the role of Sergei.

Also in the cast are Whitney Rickard of Scottsbluff, portraying Louka, the Petkoff’s maidservant; Colt Neidhardt of Crawford, Nicola, the manservant; and Mason Quinn of Cheyenne, a Bulgarian army officer.

Sometimes regarded as “a second Shakespeare,” Bernard Shaw was an interesting personality. He championed many causes, including abolition of private property, women’s rights, simplification of spelling and equality of income. For many years, he was one of England’s leading orators. He wrote more than 50 plays, and was still writing until shortly before his death at age 94 in 1950.

In 1925, Shaw was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He accepted the honor, but not the money.

Tickets for “Arms and the Man” may be obtained through the Memorial Hall box office, which is open from 2 to 6 p.m. each weekday. They are $5 for adults and $3 for senior citizens and youths 18 and under if purchased in advance. All tickets at the door are $6. Reservations may be made by calling (308) 432-6360.