Don t be a stranger to The Foreigner

Some strangers to the stage in Johnson County make you feel right at home in the Plaza Theatre Company's presentation of “The Foreigner.”
Plaza newcomers Jerry Downey, David Johnson, Michael Lain and Robert Shores combine with second-timer Jenn Fortson and veterans Luke Hunt and Trich Zaitoon to present this hilarious comedy that has an equal amount of sight gags, physical hijinks and funny lines.
The play is perfect for Plaza's intimate 160-seat theater-in-the-round because it takes place in one setting: Betty Meek's Fishing Lodge Resort in Tilghman County, Georgia.
The fun begins when Froggy LeSueur (Hunt), a British soldier sent to teach American military how to blow up things, arrives at the lodge accompanied by Charlie Baker (“No, it's not code. It's my real name,” he says as played by Shores), a shy, boring proofreader who has just found out his wife is cheating on him and wants to be left alone.
Not wanting to further humiliate himself, Charlie tells Froggy he doesn't want to talk to anyone. Froggy devises an idea that Charlie is a “foreigner” who can't speak or understand English, and thus will be left alone while Froggy is away teaching about explosives.
The idea begins to backfire when Meeks (a loud, expressive and funny Zaitoon), who is enamoured with anything foreign and mysterious, waits on Charlie hand and foot and talks to him with the loud voice we all somehow use when trying to verbally communicate with someone who cannot speak our language.
The idea really explodes when lodgers Catherine Simms (Fortson), her brother, Ellard, (Downey), who lives in his own world, and the Rev. David Lee (Johnson), an apparent holier-than-thou evangelizer who is engaged to the already-pregnant Catherine, share their secrets in front of and to Charlie because they think he cannot understand what they are saying.
The laughs stop for a few minutes when Fortson delivers an outstanding monologue about the challenges she faces taking care of her brother and her situation with the reverend.
After that, she goes to her room and Charlie is privy to a conversation between the reverend and red neck code inspector Owen Musser (Lain), about how they plan to swindle Catherine out of her inheritance and Betty out of the lodge so they can turn it into a headquarters for the Ku Klux Klan.
Along the way, there are some funny, funny scenes as Ellard tries to teach English to Charlie, and Charlie communicates with a gibberish that is supposed to be his native language.
Shores may be new to the Plaza, but he is not a rookie, as attested to by his credits in the playbill and his self-confident performance.
One of the funniest scenes is Charlie telling the story of what looks like “Little Red Riding Hood” but could be anything from “Frankenstein” to the Three Stooges meet Daffy Duck.
The play is also an opportunity for Hunt to have another major supporting role and to have his directorial debut, for which the Alvarado Junior High School theatre arts teacher receives an A+.
The actors' facial expressions, the timing of the physical comedy, and the surprise of the final scene all require excellent direction, as does a clever mirror-image interplay between Charlie and Ellard using juice glasses at the breakfast table.
Although they too, like Shores, are Plaza first-timers, Downey and Johnson have numerous Metroplex community theatre appearances in their portfolios and each is perfect for his part.
You can just tell there's something sinister about Johnson's Rev. Lee, and you just know Ellard will somehow save the day.
Watch his instantaneously positive response to everything that happens.
For Lain, however, this really is his first step onto a community stage and he couldn't have been cast in a better role. His portrayal of good ol' boy bigot Musser should give him confidence for future roles.
Kudos, too, to stage manager Crystal Todd, a senior at Alvarado High School, who makes everything work.
There is a sad side bar to the play, and that's the untimely death of its author, Larry Shue, who died in a 1985 plane crash only two years after writing “The Foreigner” and four years after penning his other comedy, “The Nerd.” One can only imagine the laughs he would have given us had he lived.
So, celebrate his life and talent and give yourself a laugh-filled night at the theatre by going to see “The Foreigner.”
With light and sound designed by G. Aaron Siler, set design by JaceSon Barrus, property design by Milette Siler and costume design by Stacey Greenawalt King, ‘The Foreigner” will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Saturdays through Jan. 28 at the Plaza Theatre, 111 S. Main St., in Cleburne.
Tickets — $15 for adults, $13 for seniors age 65 and older and students, and $12 for children age 12 and under — are on sale at the Plaza box office or by phone at 817-202-0600.