The Foreigner

The Foreigner was written in 1984, a comedy by American playwright  Larry Shue. It’s  a seldom seen production for British audiences, having been performed mainly in the States, being part of their social history.

The story-line is set in a fishing lodge in rural  Georgia, owned by Betty Meeks  and  revolves around the visit of two guests, Englishmen Charlie Baker and Staff Sergeant Froggy LeSueur. Charlie, a naturally shy person is not looking forward to his stay with unfamiliar faces, and to get him over his embarrassment Froggy tells Betty that Charlie is a foreigner and can’t understand a word of English.  To begin with Charlie is not at all happy with this situation, but gradually enters into the spirit of things and finds it has it’s advantages. One of which is be able to overhear private conversations between other guests,  One such conversation was between Catherine Simms, an heiress who is going through an emotional time and her intended the Rev. David Marshall Lee.  Catherine reveals to David that she is pregnant, and he is quite happy to get married as soon as possible, in order to get his hands on her money. Catherine is not so keen and soon it becomes evident that David has a darker side and is not all he appears, as he is heard plotting with Owen Musser, a superstitious and dangerous racist.  Charlie befriends Ellard Simms, Catherine's slightly backward brother and between them they foil the plan for the Ku Klux Klan to take over the lodge.

Charlie Baker is played by Matt Bendall in an incredibly demanding role which he pulls off extremely well, capturing all the comedy in his outlandish antics and the difficulties involved in learning what is supposed to be his native language, but is actually complete gibberish.  This personified in the brilliant story he told about himself and his experiences to the others guests, also in complete and absolute gibberish and yet somehow we all got the drift. Amazing and very funny.

Catherine, played by Abigail Hardman, gave a strong performance,  but with a kind and caring nature especially towards her brother Ellard, Joseph Marsh, who is a very convincing in this difficult role.   Callum Limer, was the Rev; who came across as a rather nasty, deceitful man, but thankfully Catherine saw what his true intentions were, before it was too late.  Betty, played by Lynda Phillips captures the comedy in her role, especially in trying to make herself understood to a foreigner; in this case Charlie, by speaking slowly and loudly.  Steve Murray plays Owen, in this his debut role with SODS; is well cast and keeps up his accent  throughout.

And finally S/ Sgt Froggy was played on this final performance by Elliott Bunce who did a remarkable job in picking up the part with just 24 hours notice, taking over from Mark Littlewood who had been ‘pinged’ on the Covid website.  Well done Elliott, not an easy task.

The team had many hurdles to overcome, not least being all the restrictions Covid has brought, but also playing in the newly refurbished Regal theatre, which in itself  must have thrown up a few teething problems. The set built by SODS Wednesday build team did a good job in a completely differently designed stage area, a challenging job in itself.   This production had been performed on alternate nights, with a completely different cast performing Steel Magnolias, and so the set had to be duel purpose.

Well done to Meryl  in her casting and direction, and to all her cast and crew who played to the socially distanced, appreciative audience.

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