Review: Theme Of CSCT's Play Not 'Foreign' To The Tolerant
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
In a time when foreigners are looked upon by many with a suspicious eye, The Center Street Community Theatre’s upcoming production of “The Foreigner” reminds us that just because someone is different, it doesn’t mean they’re not good people, and that hate is the worst sin of all. The play has a small cast of seven, but the actors do so well in their roles that it could have very well been a part of the regular Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts summer season. You can see it this Friday and Saturday or March 4 and 5 at the theater. An improv group will preceed the play at 7 p.m., with “The Foreigner” starting at about 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 and are available online through the Wagon Wheel or at the door. The play starts with Froggy LeSeur (Chris Mahan) arriving at a Georgia lodge with his friend, Charlie Baker (Gerald Cox). Both British, LeSeur has been visiting the lodge run by Betty Meeks (Cindy Nash) for years, but this time he is bringing Baker, so Baker can get away from all of his problems at home. His wife is ill and she’s cheated on him with 23 others. Baker doesn’t want to talk or interact with anyone, so LeSeur concocts a story for him that he is a foreigner that doesn’t speak any English. At first, Baker is hesitant to go with the plan, but eventually finds himself fully engulfed in the misrepresentation. Meeks has been running her home as a lodge ever since her husband died. Seeing an opportunity, the show’s villains – Owen Musser (Greg Teghtmeyer) and another character who I won’t reveal – try to take her home away from her. From the start, Musser is a villain that you’ll “love to hate” and has no redeeming qualities about him. Teghtmeyer plays his role very well, and when audiences find out his connection to the Ku Klux Klan, despising him becomes even easier. The play was written in the early 1980s, but its overall themes of acceptance and tolerance are still as relevant as ever. Teghtmeyer’s superb portrayal of the anti-Semite, homophobic and racist Musser is a good reminder that prejudices are ugly and have not gone away, unfortunately. Catherine Simms (Alessa Smith); her fiance, the Rev. David Marshall Lee (Eddie Van Hartman); and her brother, Ellard Simms (Eric Totheroh), are staying at the lodge and have some issues of their own going on. We quickly find out that Catherine is supposed to marry the Reverend Lee in November, but she’s already pregnant. She’s upset about that and the fact that Lee seems to disappear for hours or days on end. She doesn’t know what he’s up to half the time. Ellard is played perfectly by Totheroh. Most of the other characters see Ellard as stupid, while Baker quickly realizes he’s not stupid at all, just different. There’s a hilarious scene at the table between Baker and Ellard that will have audiences chuckling. This comedy started seriously becoming hilarious in this scene, and I think most of that has to do with Totheroh’s performance. Watching Cox play a character who doesn’t speak English, and who has to make up a gibberish language on the spot, was amusing. He’s basically playing a character who has to stay in character as someone who doesn’t recognize any English so he can’t respond to those talking to him. That could get confusing, but Cox, as Baker, has mastered it. Written and set in the 1980s, Director Beth Anne Cox has modernized the play a bit, but has kept the set looking a little more rustic. The phone is a landline, everything is in warm, brown and copper colors and after absorbing the play for a bit, audiences will feel like they’re really in a Georgia lodge. By the time the play is over, audiences will be delighted and feeling very entertained. Any dramatic moments are quickly followed up with a bit of comedy so as to not remove all the air out of the room. The playwright, Larry Shue, wrote a good play, but it’s this cast of seven, led by Director Cox, who truly and amazingly bring the show to life. My rating of “The Foreigner” (out of four): 3.75.
