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Play to 'enchant' audiences at Majestic

By Katelyn Gendron

Reminder Assistant Editor



WEST SPRINGFIELD Many characters have illuminated the stage at the Majestic Theater this season, from the likes of Judge Francis Biddle, Shakespeare's shrew and singing and dancing Middle American ice fishermen. But the stage will fade to shades of stormy gray on Feb. 28 with the opening of "Enchanted April."

The play, written by Matthew Barber as an adaptation of the novel by Elizabeth von Arnim, brings the audience to dreary, rainy, post-World War I England. Four women, two of whom are hopelessly involved in meaningless marriages, decide to escape the clutches of Victorian England and rent a villa in Italy for the month of April.

Danny Eaton, founder of the Theater Project, said he chose to add this play to the theater's 11th season because of the story itself, adding that it is one of the "key plays of the season."

"In selecting the shows for the season I see myself as an advocate for our audience and I trust that if it resounds with me it will resound with our audience," Eaton said. He explained that upon seeing this play under the direction of two very different production groups he knew the work resounded with him.

"They're [the four main characters Lotty Wilton, Rose Arnott, Lady Caroline Bramble and Mrs. Graves] caught up in Victorianism," Eaton said, adding that the characters are "very stiff, held back and contained, while in England during Act I."

"They certainly discover that there's an alternative to their present existence and that they're really able to get out of it," Eaton explained of the women. "They're really able to appreciate beauty and sensuality [while in Italy during Act II] and really become natural women and their husbands [who later join them in Italy], to their benefit, recognize that and become natural men."

Eaton described the entire production with enthusiasm as he spoke about the stage's, characters' and costume transformations from rainy, dull, suffocating Victorian England to the colorful sunshine of the Italian coast.

Marie Susen, company manager at the Majestic Theater, said she believes that this season has been so successful not only because of the chosen plays but also because of the entire performances the music, costumes, actors, set design and intimacy of the 229-seat theater.

She said that while theatergoers might not like every show they will always walk away in appreciation of the overall productions.

Susen said she believes that part of the appeal for the theater's approximately 4,000 subscribers is that very rarely are productions repeated.

For more information about the Majestic Theater and its 11th season visit www.majestictheater.com or call the box office at 747-7797.