Enchanted April

Last Sunday afternoon, Tom and I went to Cincinnati to see Enchanted April.  This is the last play of  The Drama Workshop's 2010-2011 season. If you live in the Cincinnati area, you might consider it for your weekend entertainment.  It is being presented again on April 14, 15, and 16. Tom and I throughly enjoyed the production.

The setting is 1922 England. The delightful play begins when Lottie Wilton, a Hampstead house wife, sees an advertisement in a newspaper...."To let for the month of April -- a small castle in Italy, Sunshine and Wisteria in Abundance".  She talks Rose Arnott, another housewife, into going with her.  The plan is to escape English rain and annoying husbands. To make the vacation affordable, they advertise for two women to share the cost.  The legend of the acacia tree with its message of birth and rebirth and love is entwined throughout the play.

Antony Wilding, owner of the castle, presents the lease agreement to Lottie Wilton and Rose Arnett.

Rose tells her husband, Frederick Arnott, that she is going to Italy with Lottie.

Mrs. Graves and Caroline Bramble, the two women who answered Lottie and Rose's ad, with Rose and Lottie in the garden of the castle in Italy.

The plot grows funny and complicated when the husbands show up at the castle. Here, Costanza, the castle's housekeeper and cook, has words with Mellersh Wilton, Lottie's husband.

Gretchen Gantner Roose, who plays Rose Arnott, told me the play is based on a book that was written in 1922.  The script for the play which we saw was written by Matthew Barber.  Gretchen said there was an earlier  play version which came out not long after the book was published.  The Drama Workshop play selection committee rejected that one as antiquated. 

Gretchen says the Matthew Barber play follows the 1992 movie version fairly closely. The play received Outstanding New American Play, an award from the Outer Critics Circle and was nominated in  two Tony  Award categories. The Movie version received two Golden Globe Awards. 

Below is The Drama Workshop cast. For information about tickets and location contact the group on Facebook, through the ticket line at 513-598-8303 or through their website... www.thedramaworkshop.org