Scandals abound in Gaslight Dinner Theatre’s The Foreigner

Release Date: 7/28/2005. Expired: 10/1/2005

While studying with a theatre company in Japan, playwright Larry Shue developed an idea for a play based on the age-old “fish-out-of-water” premise about a character from a different country. But the comedy in his award-winning show The Foreigner comes from the fact that his “foreigner” actually understands everything going on around him but must maintain the ruse that he is completely oblivious.

The comic romp of The Foreigner comes to the Gaslight Dinner Theatre at The Renaissance Center Aug. 26-Oct. 1 with shows on Fridays and Saturdays. Tickets are $27 and include a buffet dinner beginning at 6:30 p.m. and the performance at 7:30 p.m.

Senior matinees are at 12 p.m. each Friday and tickets are $17 for patrons 55 and older.

Tickets go on sale July 26 and reservations are required by noon for evening shows and noon the prior day for matinees.

The Foreigner was first produced at the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre in January 1983 and opened off-Broadway at the Astor Place Theatre in November 1984 where it ran for 685 shows. A 2004 revival of the show at the Roundabout Theatre starred Matthew Broderick in the title role.

Shue’s play won two Obie Awards and two Outer Critics Circle Awards, including Best New American Play.

Charlie Baker is an Englishman who is depressed over the state of his life and wants to hide from his cheating wife. He joins an old Army buddy, Froggy, on a trip to a fishing lodge in rural Georgia.

But depressed and painfully shy, Charlie finds the idea of interacting with strangers unbearable so Froggy presents him as a “foreigner,” someone from an exotic country who does not speak or understand English.

This leads to the other residents of the lodge beginning to confide in Charlie, believing that he doesn’t understand them, and Charlie soon discovers scandals among some of the residents of the lodge.

The Gaslight Dinner Theatre production of The Foreigner is being directed by Amy Scott, managing director of the Renaissance Players, and the cast will include two Renaissance Center favorites, Pacer Harp and Hal Partlow.

Harp returns to the Gaslight stage after a hilarious stint in the immensely popular British farce Run for Your Wife and directing the last two shows: My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra and The Honky Tonk Angels.

Other than a supporting role in Run for Your Wife, Partlow has not been seen in a featured role in a Gaslight show since the 2002 production of The Star-Spangled Girl.

For more information on the Gaslight Dinner Theatre production of The Foreigner, call (615)740-5600. To purchase tickets, call (615)740-5570.

The Renaissance Center is an arts and technology education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.

Visit the Theatre page for more about community and professional theatre.

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