Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Director Brian Pastor and his extraordinary cast have a genuine comedy on their hands. Raucous, abrupt, and tightly wound, it deserves as many pairs of eyes on it between now and late October as City Lit can squeeze into its Bryn Mawr black box."
Stage and Cinema - Recommended
"...As always, Shaw is flawless at exposing petty pretensions and hypocrisy in action. Ever “caught in the act” of being human, his sensation-seeking characters warmly wise up by play’s end, relieving us as they turn real. (Besides Caldwell and Benjamin’s well-balanced Raina and Bluntschli, there’s equally sensible stuff in Eleanor Katz as Raina’s meddling mother and Bitterman as her gruff but doting hubbie.)"
Chicago Theatre Review - Recommended
"...For a piece of art that was first written and performed over one-hundred years ago, this production proves that there is commentary hidden within that is still pertinent today. Pastor highlighted these by directing the farcical moments of Shaw’s biting social commentary at break-neck speed so that the characters and the audience could slow down for the respites of honest, human investigation. This comedy is most definitely anti-war, pointing out that the glorification of war mirrors our glorification of our potential lovers. The most patriotic thing a citizen can do is analyze their country with clear eyes, and the most romantic thing a person can do is love a person despite their faults, instead of claiming that both government and lovers have no faults."
Irish American News - Highly Recommended
"...The wonderfully funny, even hilarious, comedy is about the folly of people deluding themselves. It is a wonderful performance and I enjoyed myself greatly.
One of the main characters deludes himself into thinking that he is better than everyone else. That character is Sergius. He is a swaggering cavalry officer in a small, backward Balkan country. He is so puffed-up with self-pride that he believes he is a great military leader."
Third Coast Review - Somewhat Recommended
"...City Lit Theater’s new production of George Bernard Shaw’s 1894 play, Arms and the Man, takes full advantage of its broad humor. Perhaps Shaw’s most frothy script, director Brian Pastor directs it with panache, although he sometimes lets his cast drift into silliness. Despite that caveat, Shaw’s sly wit, his political and social attitudes and his fondness for strong female characters shine through."
Chicago On Stage - Recommended
"...George Bernard Shaw is a name mentioned in the same breath with Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett as the greatest Irish playwrights of all time. His Pygmalion, and its musical theatre adaptation My Fair Lady, are each classics of their genres. But his funniest play just may be the one he wrote making fun of warfare and human foibles, Arms and the Man. George Orwell, writing fifty years after the play premiered, called it both “the wittiest play he ever wrote” and “the most telling.” City Lit Theatre’s new production of this play, their first of anything by Shaw, highlights the playwright’s droll sense of humor, crisp characterizations and satirical flourishes with winning performances and strong direction by Brian Pastor."
Picture This Post - Recommended
"...City Lit’s Arms and the Man is fun, with lots of laugh-out-loud moments and not-so-subtle lessons about the folly of war."
Splash Magazine - Highly Recommended
"...Though Shaw called it an anti-romantic comedy, Arms and the Man has a heart at the middle of it, and this City Lit production lets it beat, going so far as to choreograph a moment when nearly all of the characters hold their hands to their chest in a sign of syncopated mutual warmed hearts. It’s not an exaggeration to say that several audience members extemporaneously joined them. This is a production that finds the perfect balance of the cerebral and the emotional within Shaw’s words."
NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...All manner of shenanigans erupt as occur among those who allow their manners to dictate their affairs in love and war. City Lit’s production of George Bernard Shaw’s “Arms and the Man” keeps the action brisk and just an eyelash to the sober side of camp under Brian Pastor’s direction. Caldwell is an earnest Raina, well-matched by the understated delivery of puppy-eyed Benjamin. Chelsee Carter and Linsey Falls are archly expressive in their roles as the maid Louka and the servingman Nicola."
