The Foreigner

A comedy by Larry Shue
Directed by Reva Kaufman
October 19 - November 10

The Very Little Theatre, one of the oldest and most successful community theatres in thecountry, opens its 73rd season on October 19 with a four-week run of "The Foreigner," an award-winning comedy by Larry Shue.

The plot begins when a British demolitions expert, Froggy LeSeuer, brings his pathologically shy friend, Charlie, to a hunting lodge in rural Georgia for some rest and relaxation. To cover his friend's shyness, Froggy tells everyone that Charlie is from a foreign land and speaks no English. Ultimately, Charlie makes up his own dialect, with hilarious results. Since no one in the area has seen a foreigner before, everyone treats him differently-and since they believe. Charlie understands no English, he starts to hear more than he should about plots and other incriminating details surrounding the local bad guys.

"The Foreigner" opened off-Broadway in 1984 and went on to win two prestigiousawards: the 1985 New York Obie and the Outer Circle Critics Award. Beneath the tremendous comic elements of the play, there is a more serious message: that we all tend to treat differently those people who don't talk, dress, or act like we do-and given the tensions that exist following the horrible events of Sept. 11, that's a message that is both timely and important. Although the play skewers the obvious prejudices of several of the characters, it's neither heavy-handed nor cynical. Shue's message is that nice guys finish first-that kindness wins out, and you laugh the bad guys off the stage.

Director Reva Kaufman has cast Achilles Massahos as Charlie, the "foreigner"; Bill Furtick as Froggy LeSueur, Dan Pegoda as the Rev. David Marshall Lee, Earl Ruttencutter as Owen Musser, Mary Tarter as Betty Meeks, Marina Marrow as Catherine Simms, and Johnny Ormsbee as Ellard Simms.

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