Silver Spring Stage Enchanted April - ShowBizRadio

by Bob Ashby

Matthew Barber’s romantic comedy Enchanted April is a slight, delicate thing, requiring subtle, nuanced characterization to carry its fanciful tale of the revitalization of the spirits and relationships of a quartet of disappointed British ladies on a 1922 vacation trip to an Italian villa. For lack of consistently strong acting, Silver Spring Stage’s production never weaves the enchantment the script contemplates.

One performance is a delight, however. Patricia Kratzer is note-perfect as Mrs. Graves, an imperious elderly widow who warms to friendship and learns to live for the present and future rather than in the past. Her transition is nicely paralleled by the colors of her costumes, starting with gloomy black and ending in radiant red. The richly realized details of her performance illuminate the reasons for Mrs. Graves’ behavior as well as making clear and understandable her gradual and seamless changes as she grows.

Little else in the production reaches this level. Annette Kalicki’s portrayal of Rose Arnott, whose depression over a miscarriage has caused her to cut herself off emotionally and sexually from her husband, is unconvincingly broad. As written, Rose is a character whose objectives and tactics are continually at odds. She wants to be close to her husband again, but her choices push him away. When we cannot see the longing beneath the distancing, her “how Rose got her groove back” transition in the second act seems very abrupt. If a couple weeks’ relaxation in a warm climate can lead an alienated, angry, and religiously rigid woman to pounce on her husband in “let’s get a room” fashion immediately upon his arrival, marital therapists everywhere could start collecting their unemployment checks.

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