ENCHANTED APRIL Reviewed
ENCHANTED APRIL
Reviewed by Jeffrey R Smith of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle
The Porchlight Theatre Company of Marin is currently staging a delightful rendition of ENCHANTED APRIL.
If your faith in the good life has recently been shaken, not stirred, by the insensitive incarceration of if Her Royal Heiress Paris Hilton and you are beginning to doubt that life can be measured in troy ounces, then ENCHANTED APRIL may serve as the perfect antidote for the existential crisis or the ennui that might be seeping into your attic. The play reinforces our sustaining belief that there exists a place—beyond Marin, beyond Trader Joe's and yes beyond Whole Foods—where we could become reacquainted with our true humanity and our intrinsic happiness.
The play originated in 1922, as a novel, by Elizabeth von Arnim. Those of us who watch it as a stage play are seeing the adaptation written by Matthew Barber, which was first presented on Broadway in 2003. Then too, there is the 1992 film, which is even a further stretch from the spirit of the novel. If original intent is to be invoked, von Arnim's novel, written close on the heels of the Great War for which England paid such dear a price, illustrates the psychological and spiritual depression that post-war England suffered. For those of you who have side-stepped both the novel and the movie, ENCHANTED APRIL follows the momentary confluence of four dissimilar women, none of whom are friends initially, who depart dreary rainy England for sunny exuberant Portofino.
The most vivacious of the foursome is Lotty Wilton: she is the engine or the catalyst driving the plot and bringing substance to dreams. Lotty is superbly played by Marin's first lady of theater: Molly Noble. Without Lotty the lives of all four women would have chugged along like a London cab hitting on three cylinders: none of the four would have tasted the dolce vita, wafted the sea breeze of the Tyrrhenian littoral nor experienced their emancipation from men. While Lotty puts forth the greatest effort to create the Italian sojourn, the cantankerous, self-absorbed and the timorous gain handsomely from the adventure. While all of the women have defects in their lives brought on by men, those defects are rightfully trivialized by the splendor of the Italian Riviera.
Beth Craven directs the play, wringing outstanding performances from the entire cast.
If you enjoy a dash of feminism, everything Italian, and outdoor theater, get yourself quickly to the Marin Garden Center for a delightful evening starlight, moonlight and Klieg lights.
Tickets run from $15 to $30. For reservations call 415-488-7126 or visit www.porchlight.net .
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