A George Bernard Shaw comedy is set to take to the stage of Norwich's Maddermarket Theatre this month.

The Norwich Players will present the show Arms and the Man from September 25 to October 4.

The famous playwright was no stranger to the city venue, and in 1940 he wrote to the theatre's founder Nugent Monck, 'There is nothing in British theatrical history more extraordinary than your creation of the Maddermarket Theatre.'

This new production of his play about love and war is being directed by Lucinda Bray.

'As the director I can tell you I was in love with the play by the end of the first page of stage directions, rich in colour and tone,' she said.

'The production will bring a new edge to a beautiful romantic comedy, written with an edge of warning to the world of the folly of war.'

Set in 1885 during the Serbo-Bulgarian war, the play shines a light on how love can be the catalyst to break down the barriers that class and prejudice create.

To Raina Petkoff and her fiancé Sergi, love is chivalry, honour, glamour, and gallantry. The play joins their story on the eve of Sergi's accidental, and some might say foolhardy, triumph in battle. His cavalry charge scatters the Austrian invaders and the Swiss mercenaries, and by some twist of fate one of those mercenaries finds his way onto Raina's moonlit balcony. He is a mercenary who carries chocolate instead of bullets, who needs the wit of a woman to save him, and in exchange turns her life upside down.

• The Norwich Players are presenting Arms and the Man at the Maddermarket Theatre from September 25 to October 4.

Tickets £8-£12. To book call the box office on 01603 620917 or visit www.maddermarket.co.uk

• Do you have a Norwich arts story? Email arts correspondent Emma Knights at emma.knights@archant.co.uk