26/05/2026
🎭 Why Shaw Still Matters
More than 130 years after it was written, Arms and the Man still feels surprisingly modern.
When George Bernard Shaw first staged the play in 1894, he set out to challenge romantic ideas about war, heroism and love. Instead of presenting noble soldiers and glorious battlefield victories, Shaw gave audiences something quite different: a practical soldier who survives through intelligence and common sense rather than bravery and spectacle.
Bluntschli , the “Chocolate Soldier” himself carries chocolates instead of bullets, exposing just how absurd romantic ideas of heroism can be.
But Shaw’s satire goes far beyond war. The characters in Arms and the Man are constantly performing versions of themselves: romantic heroes, noble ladies, fearless soldiers. Beneath the surface, however, reality is often far less glamorous. That tension between illusion and truth is exactly what continues to make the play feel so relevant today.
George Orwell greatly admired the play, describing it as “probably the wittiest play ever wrote.” Orwell believed the story remained powerful because every generation continues to romanticise warfare and heroism. Reflecting on the play during the Second World War, he wrote that Shaw was showing that war is “not glorious, not romantic.”
And perhaps that is why audiences still connect with Shaw’s world, because human nature hasn’t changed very much at all.
✨ Experience Shaw’s witty and sophisticated satire in
THE CHOCOLATE SOLDIER
📍 Wilton’s Music Hall, London
📅 23–27 June
🎟️ Book now – https://wiltons.org.uk/whats-on/the-chocolate-soldier/
