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Arts & Entertainment

2nd Star Productions Brings 'The Foreigner' to Bowie Playhouse

After having the opening weekend cut short by Tropical Storm Irene, the show will run until Sept. 10.

Last Friday, Aug. 26, before the arrival of Hurricane Irene, the folks at 2nd Star managed to offer only an opening night performance of their riotously comedic production of Larry Shue’s The Foreigner to continue on weekends through Sept. 10 at Bowie Playhouse in .

Aiming “to provide laughs aplenty” with this show she describes as “one of the funniest comedies that has ever been put on stage,“ 2nd Star President Jane Wingard, who serves as director of The Foreigner has assembled a stellar cast to find and deliver every laugh. 

Shue’s farce about vacationing Englishman Charlie Baker, a shy proofreader whose assumed inability to understand English encourages people around him to speak frankly and betray their secrets has been capturing laughs since its New York debut in November 1984.

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The Foreigner won two Obie Awards and two Critics Circle Awards before actor/playwright Shue was killed in a plane crash in September 1985 at age 38.  His play continues to capture laughs today 25 years later and will continue to evoke our laughter as long as we laugh at our human foibles.

Charlie Baker’s wife has a series of 23 extramarital affairs before being struck by a terminal illness.  Charlie is persuaded to leave her bedside by his friend, Sgt. Froggy LeSueur, who invites him to cross the Atlantic for a three-day vacation at a rural Georgia fishing lodge near an Army base where Froggy conducts annual demolition classes. Although Charlie feels some guilt about leaving his wife’s bedside, he is aware that she found him so boring that she encouraged him to leave.

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To protect shy Charlie from unwanted socializing with the lodge landlady and guests, Froggy tells them that Charlie is a foreigner who does not understand English.  Soon the guests are divulging their embarrassing secrets in front of him, and he learns that some of these people are not what they seem.

As Charlie’s affable Army buddy, Froggy, who opens the play, actor Tim Sayles, well-known to Colonial Players’ audiences, makes a memorable 2nd Star debut that proves he is expert at delivering sharply timed comic lines.

As Charlie Baker, Steve English is revisiting the role at director Wingard’s suggestion.  I suspect the star caliber performance English gives here tops his earlier one. Here English’s Charlie transitions from a cuckolded husband with no charisma to a receptive listener who mentors dimwitted guest Ellard. He evolves into a gregarious raconteur who tells in his strange Slavic-sounding language the story of Red Riding Hood in a tour de force monologue that sent the opening night audience into hysterics.

Another major 2nd Star debut is that of Barbara Webber who has delivered several performances at Bowie Playhouse and here may top them all in the role of landlady Betty Meeks, which she makes her own. 

Her Betty is a bit down on her luck when friend Froggy brings a glamorous foreigner to her rundown establishment.  Webber’s Betty raises the laugh level each time she comically raises her voice to communicate with Charlie in baffling conversations.

Erin Lorenz is believable as heiress Catherine, who befriends Charlie and has a romantic relationship with Reverend David, well played by Devin Wootton, who is also making his debut with 2nd Star in this show.

Wootton’s David is surprisingly allied with redneck Klansman Owen, skillfully played by Ken Kienas who makes a strong 2nd Star debut, noting in his program bio his concerned about perhaps being typecast “having played a wacko, a simpleton, and a homicidal gardener in his last three shows.”

Favorite leading music man Steve Love returns to 2nd Star to play the role of Catherine’s challenged brother Ellard who is initially browbeaten and clueless but gains courage and confidence under Charlie’s tutelage. Love’s Ellard is especially effective in his lively scene as a Klansman.

Once again director Wingard proves her artistic skills as set designer and scenic artist creating a cozy guest cottage audiences will enjoy visiting.

To order tickets call 410-757-5700 or visit 2ndstarproductions.com.  Individual tickets are available or you can purchase a season subscription for all four shows. 

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