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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us April 7, 2005 ‘Enchanted April’ doesn’t quite take you to Italy By Jennifer Squires Ashland Daily Tidings The production of “Enchanted April” at Camelot Theatre wants to take you away. In the Toni Award-winning show based on the novel by Elizabeth von Arnim, four English women escape their unhappy lives in London and travel south to an Italian castle on the Mediterranean coast for the month of April. The audience, however, goes no farther than the community theater in Talent. The show is a heartfelt story of two lonely women who become friends and respond to an advertisement to rent the castle in the spring of 1922. They recruit two other women — an elderly intellectual and a young widow — to share the cost and enjoy the blossoming wisteria. The four constantly spat with one another, but slowly open their hearts to new friends and rediscover the happiness they had lost. It just takes a long time. Lotty Witlon (Renee Hewitt), a neurotic woman overlooked by her husband, wants a partner in crime and cons Rose Arnott (Rebecca K. Campbell), a religious housewife who has accepted her bleak life, to join her. Act I winds through nine scenes of the Lotty pushing Rose through the process of renting the villa and interviewing housemates. The two actresses carry the act without a costume change and introduce the audience to all of the characters. However, discerning one scene from the next in the first act is difficult because there are few changes in lighting or props on the minimal stage. Holding on through the first act and the intermission (where you’ll find props used in Act 1 discarded on a side table in the lobby) gets you into the meat of the story and the portion of the production with which the audience seemed to identify. Act II picks up at the castle with all four women together for the first time. The theater experimented with a rotating stage for this production. The brave move gives the second act a completely different stage. Though still sparse, the new backdrop uses more color and resembles an actual deck instead of the drab two-table, four-chair setup in the first act. The change is not contained to the props, however. The women transformed from exaggerated stereotypes to people, showing emotion and revealing their personal histories. The men come back — the villa owner Anthony Wilding (Thomas Prislac) and the husbands, Frederick Arnott (Scott Honeywell) and Mellersh Wilton (John Litton) — and consistently three or more actors are on stage at once. The influx of people keeps the audience’s focus on the action, masking the occasional slip-up on a line or the crash from backstage. The second act is also funnier, largely due to Bunny Lewis’ performance as Costanza, the maid at the villa who only speaks Italian. Costanza’s facial expressions and body movements illustrate her annoyance with Mrs. Graves (Dianna Warner), an older woman set in her ways and critical of others, and Lady Caroline (Sonya Eldridge), a wealthy young woman with liberal ideas. By the end of April, the wisteria bloom wilting. Although the audience may not have traveled from their theater seats to Italy with the women, it’s still makes you feel good to see the four women have. “Enchanted April” runs through May 1 at Camelot Theatre. For ticket information, call 535-5252 ext. 1 in the afternoon, Wednesday-Saturday and Mondays. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Generic Viagra Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Sportsbook Absinthe Supply Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations African Safari Hammocks Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino King of Spirits ink cartridges Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams