`The Foreigner' juxtaposes British, Southern cultures
Lovett College's production of the Larry Shue comedy The Foreigner is like cooking without a recipe: Throw in some random spices, salt it to taste and see what you come up with.
The plot is simple yet bizarre. The acting is superb though confusing; the story has a lot of little meanings but no driving point in the plot. The premise of the play is provided when Charlie (Troy Van Voorhis), a Londoner, is sent by his ill wife to spend three days in a decaying fishing lodge in the heart of the American South. The truth is she wants to get away from him because he bores her to no end.
Charlie is not at all pleased to be taking this vacation; he has an irrational fear of talking to people he does not know, which of course includes all of America.
The solution is for Charlie to pretend that he speaks no English so he won't have to engage in any conversation with his fellow boarders: the owner, a young couple and a dullard. But being Southerners, they cannot ignore Charlie.
The aging owner, Betty (Emily Liu), screams in his ear as if he were deaf, not foreign; the troubled fiancée, Catherine (Christy Adessa) finds that he is a good listener, and the dullard (Chip Aucoin), not so coincidentally named Ellard, takes pride in teaching him English.
In the background of all of this, the mean-spirited property examiner Owen and Catherine's fiancé, the Reverend David (Chris Ciompi), are plotting away at something. It is hard to figure out just what, since David is such a holy roller and Owen an overgrown school bully.
The plot turns out to be very underhanded, involving the folklore of the Deep South. The beauty of the play lies in its clever resolution.
The directors, Emily Jiang and Jesse Jou, present a very talented group of actors -- so good that I wonder if they are like this in real life (scary thought).
Ciompi as the Reverend is unnerving as a good Christian turned evil, without changing the pitch of his evangelical voice.
Catherine (Adessa) is the only truly sane member of the bunch; she deals with her conflicts very naturally. Liu and Aucoin play very good slow Southerners, and Paul Moore is quite believable as a self-centered rac- ist.
But by far, the greatest talent in the show is Van Voorhis, who carries off a multi-dimensional character. He is a Londoner playing at being a mysterious foreigner who at the same time is playing some kind of alien, illegal or otherwise.
As if finding a name for leftover casserole, I struggled to find some sociological point to this story. In both cases, it's best to give up and concentrate on the ingredients.
One possible point that the play is trying to make concerns the virtues of assimilating different cultures. The dullard becomes almost smart, and the boring fellow becomes fascinating and clever.
But keep in mind that this is a play, not a lecture, just as the casserole is just plain food, not gourmet cuisine. Enjoy the eclectic acting, the strange story -- not to mention the (metaphorical) caloric value. So sit back and allow yourself to be entertained.
In a word, the best way to enjoy this play might well be this: Shut up and eat.
This item appeared in the Arts & Entertainment section of the March 15, 1996 issue.
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