The Winter Drama program places students in charge of directing shows, and this year--for the first time--we have three productions directed by five seniors. Last week, we were stunned by the professionalism of The Elephant Man, directed by Jessy Lee and Cameron Lucas. Friday, Larry Shue's hilarious-yet-dramatic The Foreigner opens under the direction of Cannon Brownell and Yasmine Zinbi.

The scene is a guest lodge in some remote, backwater Georgia town, where two Brits--one a chatty fellow on a mission, and Charlie, our painfully shy hero--are about to part for a couple of days. To protect Charlie from the anxiety of social engagement, "Froggy" declares that Charlie is from an exotic nation and knows no English.



The ruse that Charlie is essentially dumb to English sets up a hilarious set of scenes in which rural, small-town folk spill all their sordid secrets to him. He is, in fact, monitoring a complex scene of selfishness, bigotry and kindness.

 




The comedy in this show comes from Charlie's relationship with a Forrest Gump-like character named Ellard, who might inherit a boodle of money if he's deemed cognitively fit. Charlie pretends to learn some words of English--quite rapidly, in fact--from Ellard.

 




When Charlie eventually reveals his growing English vocabulary and syntax, the games change.

 

This show may be a comedy, but it takes on dramatic social issues of bigotry and implied racism, as a complex pastor and a beer-swilling thug bring in the Ku Klux Klan to confront the foreigner.

 

The outcome is a triumph, as is this production. Congrats to everyone involved. This show plays Friday and Saturday at 7:00 PM.