At Pentacle Theatre this month, four ladies' desire to turn their “befores” into “afters“. Their ‘before’ is London, in 1922, and it is cold. Cold rain, cold marriages, cold lives. Their route to “after” comes by way of an ad in the paper, a castle, wisteria, each other, and one very enchanted April.

"Enchanted April" is really a story for women, a playful discourse on friends, love, beauty and freedom. And under director Larry Roach, it is also a deeply sweet and happy play. Quick, never bogging down or wandering, it carries a consistent comic beat, with notable crescendos of out-and-out hilarity. See Lotty and Rose wailing their regret of their own recklessness on the floor of an Italian train, or Mrs. Graves dignified offense at the suggestion that she and Keats were pals.

The charm of the characters in "Enchanted April" is that they all have full, enormous hearts simply waiting to be warmed to life by Italian sunshine. Pamela Bilderbeck’s Mrs. Graves, the nut-loving Victorian crone who wants nothing but to be left alone with her dead memories is a huge source of comedy, along with Alice Pangburn’s Constanza, who garners the biggest laughs in the play even though her jokes are all spoken in Italian. Lynelle Littkke is very captivating as the willowy and sad-eyed Lady Caroline Bramble. Erika Zuelke leads the cast as Lotty Wilton, the over excited child-woman whose impetuousness begins the adventure. She embodies the spirit of the play in her character; her energy, demands and disagreements never crossing the lines away from affection and kindness. Jeff Baer’s charismatic straight-man Mr. Wilding is a similar compliment to the heart of the production, bewildered but happy to be so.

The ladies costumes, both the drab and the decadent versions, are a pleasure to see. Set design is unremarkable, but charming. Pentacle’s "Enchanted April" is nice, all around nice. The job of a romantic comedy is not to pull new thoughts from an audience or break barriers. A romantic comedy is played to comfort its viewers with the familiar, and to show them more beauty than truth. "Enchanted April" succeeds thoroughly at what it is intended to be. Give the ladies in your life an early Mother’s Day gift of an "Enchanted April."

Running through May 9th, tickets are available at the Pentacle Ticket office, by phone at 503-485-4300 or through the web site.