Enchanted April

Scenery, costumes and special effects figure almost as importantly in this production as does the plot. Enchanted April builds on the Come-to-Italy-and-Your-Life-Will-Change premise, used so often in modern movies (note the British film version of von Arnim's book.) Asolo Theater Company wins applause for the real rain pouring down outside windows in the opening London scenes. Clapping also greets a first view of the castle, its trellises overflowing with vines and flowers, overlooking a sunlit shore at San Salvatore. (We might quarrel that there's not a lot of the much-talked-about wisteria, though.)

The idea of renting the place for a month originates with bored English housewife Lotty (bubbly, always "on" Carolyn Swift), later almost terminally ecstatic. She loves reading (and here, reciting) poetry and legends. Those interests are all that has held her back from "oblivion" -- until she sees the ad for the Italian holiday rental. Obviously her skimping husband Mellersh won't pop for the rent, and she can't make it with what she's squirreled away for "a rainy day." So she sets out to enlist castle-mates.

First to join Lotty, though she takes a lot of persuading, is Rose (Carolyn Michel, reserved and oddly funny looking). She needs to get away but prefers not to go on a promotional tour with her husband Frederick (James Clark acting his hearty self). A poet, he yet makes a living using a pseudonym and writing, she feels, "books God would not want to read." When Rose and Lotty take out another ad, they find the older, very proper, bossy Mrs. Graves (primly realized by Sharon Spelman). Coming from a family that knew all the great Victorian writers, she disapproves of modernity. Stating desires to "sit quietly and remember," she nevertheless attempts to import her English ways and rule the household. Finally, rich Lady Caroline (beautiful, polished Deanna Gibson) wants to escape from society and drinks on the sly. (We discover she's grieving for a fiance, a recent WWI casualty but has taken up with a certain writer during his international travels.)

In Italy, the few initial clashes are over propriety, mostly between Mrs. Graves and the other ladies. Her animosity never fades, though, toward self-assured housekeeper-cook Costanza. (Rosalind Cramer has Italian words, attitude, gestures down pat.) By the time the sweet, handsome young owner (Britt Whittle, made for the part) drops by, en route to Rome, to pick up a few things, the women have changed considerably. Lotty and Rose's husbands, having been invited to visit by the wives, also experience altering. Frederick makes a choice. As Mellersh gets in romantic tune with Lotty, Douglas Jones has him dropping his social pretensions (along with, in a daring but much laughed at scene, a towel around his naked body). Lady Caroline gains a future while Mrs. Graves reconciles present with her past. Everything and everyone fit together so neatly, they seem charmed. The ending is wrapped up with poetry and story echoing the beginning. And conveying these, Lotty seems not to have changed at all.