An Arms Race to Love, and More Theater Things

Arms and the Man, which performs at SBCC’s Garvin Theatre October 8-25, goes back even further in history, as Shaw’s 1894 play is set during the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian war. Though the work – the first in Shaw’s “Plays Pleasant” catalog – is much more of a romantic comedy, it skewers class discrimination, the politics of war, and even gender roles through a lens of realism. 

The story follows Raina, a woman from a wealthy household. She is engaged to a handsome but none-too-bright war hero named Sergius, but finds herself more interested in the charismatic mercenary from the opposing army. Sergius, meanwhile, discovers he has a passion for a household servant, which has him wondering about class divisions. 

“Shaw actually called it a non-romantic comedy because he took those romantic ideals of the age and sort of turned them on their head,” said director Jonathan Fox, the former artist director of Ensemble. “The play is about stripping away the myth of the Byronic hero, challenging the sentimental notions of romance.” 

Acting Out

Folks still lament the closing of the Circle Bar B Dinner Theatre in 2014 following 44 years of zaniness and BBQ at the guest ranch’s converted barn on Refugio Road. A decade later, a more elegant cousin has stepped into the void. Acting Out Theatre, a collaboration between actress/producer Nancy Gutfreund and playwright/director Joan Robb Fradkin, is set to launch a new venture that envisions bringing upscale dinner theater to downtown Santa Barbara. Acting Out’s first production, Fradkin’s A Dark and Stormy Night (yes, the same phrase that opens Snoopy’s attempt to write a novel), is a tongue-in-cheek parody of murder mysteries full of cliched characters – and is accompanied by a gourmet three-course dinner including wine at Opal Restaurant & Bar. Just like at Circle Bar B, the audience gets in on the action and are asked to guess whodunit. 

The players include several dinner theater veterans among a cast of Nick Woolf, Matthew Tavianini, Alaina Dean, Felicia Palmer, Jonathan Malindine, and Ivy Vahanian. Performances are slated for October 15 and 22, with a possible third show to be announced. Email Gutfreund at [email protected] for reservations. 

Anima Arrives 

The Fall 2025 installment of the ritual theater performances known as Anima: Theater of the Feminine Underground brings new pieces created and presented by founder Lisa Citore as well as Anima veterans Elaine Gale, KiaOra Fox, Aurora Rose Wesman, Melissa Lowenstein, Chelsea Didier, Samantha Bonavia, Cybil Gilbertson, and Rachel Petkus, along with an ever-expanding ensemble cast of 25 other artists. The short works delve into themes of group consciousness, sensual awakenings, shame, healing from betrayal, freeing the pelvis, and liberating the voice over a variety of mediums from dance and song to poetry, theater, and clowning. Shows takes place October 9-10 at Center Stage Theatre.

Visit https://centerstagetheater.org. 

As Fox put it, “In the way they approach the idea that someone from the upper classes would marry a servant, the upper crust family come off as buffoonish.” Even the title of the work by Shaw – best known for his play Pygmalion on which the Broadway musical My Fair Lady is based – is meant to be ironic, Fox said, as the concept of war as heroic is challenged in moments where “there’s this horrific sort of description of what actually happens on the battlefield.” 

Mainly, though, Fox said, Arms and the Man is a romantic comedy, albeit one with a message. 

“It’s very funny, with a lot of humor that would have really hit home back in 1895,” he said. “Audiences got a real kick out of it back then. The play is relevant today because it is about truth and honesty as opposed to falsehoods. These are characters who start to soul search and realize that they’ve been living a lie. And so even though the conventions have changed, at heart it deals with some very basic human emotions.”