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The Foreigner (2007) >
Village Life|News and Review|Amador Ledger Dispatch
Winner of two Obie Awards and two Outer Critics Circle Awards as Best New American Play and Best Off-Broadway Production. An inspired comic romp, equal in inventive hilarity to the author's classic comedy The Nerd. Based on what the NY Post describes as a "devilishly clever idea," the play demonstrates what can happen when a group of devious characters must deal with a stranger who (they think) knows no English. "I laughed start to finish at one comic surprise after another." The New Yorker. "A constant invitation to relax and laugh at the foolishness of life..." Village Voice. "Shue's comedy is positively antic, yet pleasantly seasoned with a few dashes of sentimentality. He has raided comedy's storehouse." Bergen Record.
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Village Life
At MSTW: A foreigner liberates Americans
By David Jacobson, Village Life
(6.27.07) For a thoroughly delightful evening at the theater, it would be hard to beat Larry Shue’s The Foreigner, in Main Street Theatre Works’ polished production at the Kennedy Mine Amphitheatre in Jackson. One of Shue’s two popular farces of the early eighties, it’s far more gratifying than his earlier The Nerd. Both plays build on a similar premise: an innocent eccentric invades a close-knit group and turns their lives topsy-turvy as they strive to be nice to him.
Not only is The Foreigner, wildly funny but it also glows with good-hearted innocence. Charlie Baker (Floyd Harden) brings out the best in the good people and the worst in the bad ones, becoming a living mirror held up to human nature. Ultimately he liberates Betty Meek’s Fishing Lodge in Rural Georgia from a lynch mob of bigots.
The action begins with "Froggy" LeSueur (Allen Pontes), a British soldier cooperating with the American military on a mission to blow up mountains. He consoles Charlie, just arrived at the lodge for a brief respite from his dying wife. Adding to Charlie’s misery is the recollection of his wife’s serial infidelities, for which he blames himself because he’s "boring."
"How does one acquire personality?" he wails, and then asks to be hidden from anyone who might see him. He’s so dull, he explains, that he’ll humiliate himself if he tries to make conversation. Froggy suggests that Charlie pretend to be a foreigner who can’t speak English. The ruse bears fruit when the good-natured Betty (Sandra McCord) takes him under her personal protection.
As Charlie sits almost invisible in a wingback chair, he overhears an intimate conversation between the Rev. David Marshal Lee (Earl Victorine) and his unexpectedly pregnant girlfriend, Catherine Simms (Kristine David). After she goes upstairs for the night, Charlie overhears a conversation between Lee and Owen Musser (David Campfield), a belligerent redneck, as they conspire to bilk Catherine out of her inheritance and Betty out of her Lodge.
Froggy, meanwhile, is away on duty, but Charlie responds to Ellard (Anthony Scoggins), Catherine’s cognitively challenged brother, who appears to perform miracles by teaching Charlie English through "extra-curricular communication." In the second act it’s up to Ellard and Charlie, still playing the foreigner, to save themselves and the lodge.
On a convincingly rustic set, by Susan McCandless and Ken Stefferud, and under Pontes’ crisp direction, an impressive cast delivers a hilarious romp that keeps even very young children laughing. But the highlight has to be Charlie telling a folk tale in his "native" gibberish, complete with grimaces and expressive gestures to the enraptured gazes of his audience, folks who never saw a foreigner before.
The rest of the cast carry off their comic performances with a definitive economy. Kristine David has the problem of trying to balance the others onstage by portraying the one "normal" character in the play and tends to underplay, which of course is better than going in the opposite direction. The script sags a bit in the first act; we don’t really need all of those English lessons.
It also leaves us with a couple of loose ends. But maybe it’s just as well to let us make our educated guesses.
The Foreigner, runs Friday and Saturday through July 21 at the Kennedy Mine Amphitheatre in Jackson. Take Highway 49 to North Main Street in Jackson. Turn left at the light and follow North Main to the theater’s sign, just beyond the Country Squire Motel. Gates open at 6:30 p.m. for picnics, with show at 8 p.m. Tickets are $16 general, $12 for children 18 and under. Tickets are available at the gate but may be charged by phone at Lizzie Ann’s/Bubblegum Books between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Call (209) 267-5680. See also www.mstw.org.
E-mail jacobsondb@aol.com.
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Sacramento News and Review
Innocents Abroad
By Jeff Hudson, Sacramento News and Review
(7.28.07) Main Street Theatre Works has moved back into its summer home, the attractive Kennedy Mine Amphitheatre in Jackson. Opening up its two-show season is The Foreigner, Larry Shue's Southern hunting-lodge comedy from the 1980s, involving a visiting Brit so colorless that he actually asks, "How does one obtain a personality?"
This gent, recovering from a bad marriage, wants to avoid contact with the Georgia locals. At the suggestion of a friend named Froggy LeSueur, the Brit decides to pretend he can't speak English. Of course he soon becomes a sympathetic if largely tongue-tied confidant of several characters. He even becomes a hero, helping run off a raid by the local Ku Klux Klan.
OK, it's a hokey story with predictable plot developments and (surprise!) a feel-good ending. Most of the play's inhabitants are flimsy caricatures of Southern stereotypes, from the xenophobic redneck (presented well by David Campfield) to the dim-witted but kind-hearted village idiot (Anthony Scoggins) and his sister, the pretty young heiress (Kristine David).
But while the script is insubstantial in several departments, it nonetheless offers a fine framework for the comic abilities of actor Floyd Harden, who really is quite funny as the visiting Brit, inventing his own crazy language as the need arises, and making up "foreign" customs as well.
There are also some nice upgrades to the amphitheater, like a bigger stage and more grass. The twilight evening air and the moonlight are as lovely as always.
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Amador Ledger-Dispatch
MSTW finds success with 'foreign' play
By Jennifer Gee, Amador Ledger-Dispatch
(6.27.07)
In a quiet, rustic and simple fishing lodge in Georgia, life was anything but after the arrival of a "foreigner." And for the audience, Main Street Theatre Works' portrayal of this "foreigner" made life funnier and even suspenseful for length of the play.
In Main Street Theatre Works' production of "The Foreigner" by Larry Shue, a quiet man, Charlie Baker, played by Floyd Harden, who describes himself as having no personality, travels to a fishing lodge in Georgia. There, because he is shy and awkward with strangers, Charlie wishes to speak to no one. His friend, Froggy Le Sueur, played by Allen Pontes, arranges for that to happen by telling the lodge owner, Betty Meeks, played by Sandra McCord, that Charlie cannot speak or understand English. Meeks is a dowdy yet charming character who seems 20 years younger once she believes that there is a foreign and therefore more exotic guest in her quaint lodge. McCord does an excellent job at making her character lovable and if it weren't for the apron and large gray wig, her character could easily pass as a giddy teenager rather than an older woman.
Charlie's introduction to the audience has him wet and sullen-faced. His depressingly dull attire - black slacks, white button down shirt and black tie - reflect his depressing demeanor. Even though during the first few minutes of the play Charlie doesn't say a word, he had the crowd laughing out loud.
Eventually, Charlie's vocabulary expands with the help of simpleton Ellard Simms, played by Anthony Scoggins, who along with his sister, Catherine Simms, played by Kristine David, is a guest at the lodge. The audience watches as Charlie's vocabulary improves, so does Ellard's confidence in himself. Scoggins' performance is also endearing because of the excitement he portrays as he runs around the lodge, teaching Harden's character how to say the names of different objects in the room.
As Ellard finds a new friend, his sister, Catherine, finds a confident in Charlie. Believing that he cannot understand what she is saying, Catherine begins to talk to Charlie every day, voicing her concerns and frustrations. Catherine initially has a tough, unfriendly exterior that David makes believable and therefore her character unlikable in the beginning of the play. But as the play progresses and David skillfully softens her character, Catherine begins to grow on the audience and by the end, they are rooting for her to be happy.
To add some drama and excitement to the play, two characters with less than honorable intentions scheme to turn things around at the lodge. Rev. David Marshall Lee, played by Earl Victorine, is set to marry Catherine but the audience finds out early on that the reverend is out for more than Catherine's affections. His accomplice is Owen Musser, played by David Campfield, who is a rural-town bully. Both Victorine and Campfield did such a convincing job of playing the bad guys, the audience boos them at the end of the performance.
Throughout the play, Froggy makes a cameo here and there, each time with witty comments. Pontes, who also directs the play, adds humor to each scene he is in.
The detailed set, designed by Susan McCandless and Ken Stefferud, only enhanced the entertaining characters. The stage has a rustic and homey feel with a comfy looking sofa and chair, all in brown, yellows, greens and oranges to reflect the style of the time.
Costume design by Julie Anchor was on target for each character from the dirty jeans and cut off flannel shirt for Owen to the clean suit jacket and khaki pants to make Rev. Lee seem like an upstanding man.
"The Foreigner" is shown at the Kennedy Mine Amphitheatre in Jackson. It runs Friday and Saturday nights through July 21. Gates open at 6:30 p.m. for picnicking (bring food, drinks and chairs), show starts at 8 p.m. Be sure to bring a blanket, insect repellent, sweaters and lawn chairs.
Tickets are $16 for adults and $12 for children 18 and younger. Tickets are available at the gate or through Hein & Co. Bookstore, 204 A Main St., Jackson, cash and check transactions only; Lizzie Ann's/Bubblegum Books, 59 Main St., Sutter Creek; or charge by phone by calling 267-5680 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. only. For more information, visit www.mstw.org.
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Credits for The Foreigner
THE CAST
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THE CREW
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SPECIAL THANKS
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