Reviewed by Jerry Kraft
“Enchanted
April” is a very
soft play, almost pastel in its coloration and even where it does have a few
sharp edges they bruise rather than batter, wound less than they leave the
tender spots in relationships even more tender. It is the simple story of four
women trying to escape the gloomy weather and even gloomier atmosphere of post
World War I Britain by escaping for a month to a rented castle in Italy. There,
the lush countryside and bright vegetation brings illumination and relief to
their individual sense of self and to their dimmed marriages.
This
is a play that speaks in very hushed tones because it is as often about inner
voices as it is about verbal communication. It requires quiet modulation and
careful accent to guide us to an understanding of these women as they come to
understand each other. The women's characters are well-drawn and compelling,
the husbands less so. The script is very smart and uses judiciously placed
comedy, usually very bright lines, to energize and propel the action. This production
is well cast and director Karen Lund uses her subtlety and insight, her excellent theatrical
taste, to keep the drama elegant and entertaining.
Lotty
Wilson is the driving force behind this great adventure, a woman so constrained
within her stifling marriage to Mellersh Wilton (the appropriately stultifying Ryan
Childers) that
we know she either has to do something or she's going to suffocate. Charity
Parenzini is a
wonderfully vibrant actress and she brings delightful vitality to Lotty. She
really is the peek of sunshine that tells us these women can emerge from their
cloudy lives. Her first task is to convince her friend Rose Arnott, abandoned
at home while her husband, Frederick, travels on endless book tours to promote
his commercial, pseudonymous novels. Nikki Visel plays Rose with great
containment, perhaps a bit too much, but it certainly makes us realize how
important stability is to this woman, and that makes the threat of infidelity
presented by her husband all the more precipitous. Jeff Berryman does an excellent job of giving
the rather underwritten role of Frederick some depth and sobriety, allowing us
to understand him and forgive him his infidelity in ways that his wife never
has to. That infidelity is with the beautiful and sorrowful Lady Caroline
Bramble, a secret widow of the War and a far more substantial person than her
position requires. Anne Kennedy played the part beautifully, retaining her dignity
through the loss of two men she loved and letting us understand why she is so
reluctant to let anyone really know her.
In
the comic role of the dowager, Kim Morris played Mrs. Graves with all the pomposity and
supercilious rectitude the role required, and still managed to warm her in the
Tuscan sun. Aaron Finley was as lightweight as a seersucker suit in his role as the travel
agent who arranges this whole affair and Llysa Holland got great comic material from
the role of the housemaid Costanza.
The
production accomplished everything the script sets out to achieve; an intimate,
relaxed encounter with four women trying to find a light at the end of the
darkness, a personal affirmation within their social roles, and a connection
with those they love and those who love them. That's a pretty serious ambition
in what is, in many ways, a miniature drama. And, in it's very quiet way, in
its subtle escape to a better place where people can find their better angels,
it is quite enchanting.