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It is February 1922 and Lotty Wilton and Rose Arnott are two Hampstead housewives with unfulfilled marriages, desperate to break away from their humdrum lives and miserable, austere post-war London. Seeing a newspaper advertisement for a small castle in Italy to be let for the month of April, they pluck up the courage to leave their husbands behind and recruit two other very different women to share the cost and experience – Mrs Graves, a stern, uncompromising widow, and the attractive, but strangely aloof young socialite Lady Caroline Bramble.
During their enchanted month in Italy, the ladies fall under the spell of their idyllic, sun-drenched surroundings. There, amid the wisteria blossoms, they rediscover laughter, learn new truths about themselves and find just the romance they need, though perhaps not the romance they were expecting to find.
The Enchanted April, by Elizabeth von Arnim, was a worldwide best-seller in 1922. The 1992 film version, starring Miranda Richardson, Josie Lawrence and Joan Plowright, was nominated for 3 Oscars and won 2 Golden Globe Awards. This stage adaptation by Matthew Barber was nominated for a Tony Award in 2003.
CAST
Lotty Wilton - Jan Bursby
Rose Arnott - Boo Feltham
Mellersh Wilton - Anthony Parkinson
Frederick Arnott - Sam Moulton
Lady Caroline Bramble - Keely Campbell
Mrs Graves - Val Mantle
Costanza - Judy Garrett
Anthony Wilding - Mark Ellen
Directed by Paul Hewitt
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