A SAMUEL FRENCH, LTD. TITLE

The Foreigner

Full-Length Play, Comedy  /  2w, 5m

Trying to forget his marital problems, dull and doleful Charlie Baker takes a fishing lodge holiday in the Deep South of America, and to avoid being pestered by the locals pretends that he is a foreigner who speaks no English. This leads him to becoming involved, at first unwillingly, in very bizarre goings-on featuring a corrupt preacher, his pregnant girlfriend, her none-too-bright kid brother and the local branch of the Ku Klux Klan!

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    2w, 5m
  • Duration
    Duration
    More than 120 minutes (2 hours)
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Farce
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult
Accolades
Accolades
  • Winner! 1985 Outer Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding New American Play and Outstanding Off-Broadway Production

Details

Summary

The scene is a fishing lodge in rural Georgia often visited by “Froggy” LeSueur, a British demolition expert who occasionally runs training sessions at a nearby army base. This time “Froggy” has brought along a friend, a pathologically shy young man named Charlie who is overcome with fear at the thought of making conversation with strangers. So “Froggy”, before departing, tells all assembled that Charlie is from an exotic foreign country and speaks no English.

Once alone the fun really begins, as Charlie overhears more than he should – the evil plans of a sinister, two-faced minister and his redneck associate; the fact that the minister’s pretty fiancée is pregnant; and many other damaging revelations made with the thought that Charlie doesn’t understand a word being said. That he does fuels the nonstop hilarity of the play and sets up the wildly funny climax in which things go uproariously awry for the “bad guys” and the “good guys” emerge triumphant.

History

The Foreigner was presented at the Astor Place Theatre in New York City, on 1 November 1984. It was directed by Jerry Zaks, and its author Larry Shue played “Froggy” LeSueur. It was originally produced by the Milwaukee Repertory Theater on 13 January 1983.

Cast Attributes
CHARLIE BAKER – A timid proofreader for a science fiction magazine with a merrily adulterous wife who disdains him, yet whom he misses.
“FROGGY” LESUEUR ­– A cheerful British Army man.
BETTY MEEKS – A good-natured elderly widow who owns a resort lodge and mothers her guests.
CATHERINE SIMMS – A pretty heiress going through an emotional time, who looks after Ellard.
ELLARD SIMMS – Catherine’s dim-witted brother, heir to half the family fortune.
REV. DAVID MARSHALL LEE – A polite, good-looking white Christian man, engaged to Catherine.
OWEN MUSSER – A superstitious, dangerous white supremacist who lives in town.
TOWNSPEOPLE
  • Time Period Contemporary, 1980s
  • Setting

    A fishing lodge parlour in rural Georgia. 1980s.

  • Features Contemporary Costumes/Street Clothes, Period Costumes
  • Duration More than 120 minutes (2 hours)

Media

“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

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £70 per performance plus VAT when applicable.

Authors

Larry Shue

Larry Shue was the author of THE NERD, which ran successfully on Broadway with a National Tour and many productions overseas. His play WENCESLAS SQUARE was performed Off-Broadway at the New York Shakespeare Festival. WENCESLAS SQUARE is part of "Best Play of 1987-1988," publi ...
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