Suffield Players production of “The Foreigner” is dark humor at it’s best

SUFFIELD — Hidden in the hills of Suffield is a community theater that consistently produces off beat dark comedies time and time again.
“The Foreigner” written by Larry Shue, continues their tradition of thoughtful, dark farcical plays, here with a little slapstick thrown in for good measure.
The play is set in a rundown fishing resort in Georgia. A British sergeant, Froggy LeSueur, played by Mark Proulx, with a pronounced Australian accent, brings his English friend, Charlie Baker, with him to the lodge.
Baker, played by Dale T. Facey, has a morbid fear of meeting and speaking with new people, so LeSueur concocts a story that Charlie is from an exotic country and knows no English.
Charlie’s wife, who has cheated on him extensively, is in a hospital back in England and has six months to live. Still she insisted Charlie go with LeSueur to the U.S., mostly because she doesn’t like him very much. Charlie tells this all matter-of-factly, saying he understands because he has no personality and is boring.
In comes the resort owner, the bawdy, loud, jovial Betty Meeks, played with exuberance by Cynthia Lee Andersen, followed by former debutant and reluctant fiancée Catherine Simms (Brianna Stronk) and her beau, the smarmy Reverend David Marshall Lee. The reverend is played with creepy dark intent by Christopher Berrien, who takes literally the saying, “The Lord helps those who help themselves.”
Catherine has a dim-witted but good-hearted brother, Ellard Simms, played with child-like enthusiasm by Brian Rucci, whom the conniving reverend is trying to cheat out of his share of the $1 million family inheritance.
Good-old-boy Owen Musser, played by James L. Frank-Saraceni, is the straight-forward mean old biggot and Ku Klux Klan member who is working in cahoots with the reverend to condemn Meek’s resort in order to buy it on the cheap and make it their Klan headquarters.
Facey is great as Baker, who goes from a terrified, timid bore, to a creative, witty, and brave hero in the course of the play that has some really surprisingly scary parts and some unexpected twists and turns.
While all the actors do a terrific job with their roles, Frank-Saraceni’s Owen is the most authentic redneck of the bunch. He reacts more than acts, and his responses, particularly when he is forced to try to pronounce a foreign, albeit made up, language, is sharp and real.
The first act is a bit long in exposition and talking heads, and as tightly directed as it is by Robert Lunde, it drags on and isn’t that funny. But the second act is the payoff for hanging in there, with twists and turns and witty situations, all orchestrated by Charlie Baker.
The set by Lunde and Konrad Rogowski is meticulously detailed right down to the fishing tackle and the tacky singing fish on the wall that they turn on once during a set change, which is a nice touch.
Shue sadly died in a commuter plane crash in 1985 at 39 at the beginning of what would surely have been a stellar career, and it’s a shame to think of all the plays he could have created had he lived.
Still, the Suffield Players’ production of Shue’s “The Foreigner” is a intelligent, funny black comedy and a great night out.

THE FOREIGNER

3 Stars
Location: Mapleton Hall, 1305 Mapleton Ave. Suffield.
Production: Written by Larry Shue. Directed by Robert Lunde. Stage manager Karen Balaska. Assistant stage manager Bob Williams. Backstage crew Beth Moriarty. Technical director and lighting design by Jerry Zalewski. Production manager Konrad Rogowski. Special costume design and constructin by Bev Sikes. Set design by Lunde and Rogowski. Sound design by Joe Soucy.
Running time: 2 hours, plus a 15-minute intermissions.
Show Times: Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. through Oct. 24.
Tickets: $17, $15 for seniors and students. Call 1-800-289-6148 of visit their website at www.suffieldplayers.org.
ACTOR…CHARACTER
Mark Proulx … Staff Sgt. Froggy LeSueur
Dale T. Facey … Charlie Baker
Cynthia Lee Andersen … Betty Meeks
Christopher Berrien … Rev. David Marshall Lee
Brianna Stronk … Catherine Simms
James L. Frank-Saraceni … Owen Musser
Brian Rucci … Ellard Simms
Gwen Moriarty, Sadie Moriarty … Klansmen