The Foreigner (play)

The Foreigner is a two-act comedy by American playwright Larry Shue. The play has become a staple of professional and amateur theatre.The Foreigner has earned two Obie Awards and two Outer Critics Circle Awards as Best New American Play and Best Off-Broadway Production.

In a resort-style fishing lodge in rural Georgia, the plot revolves around the visit of two guests, Englishmen Charlie Baker and Staff Sergeant Froggy LeSueur. Naturally shy, Charlie is also depressed because his beloved wife may be dying. He tells Froggy, "I should have stayed with Mary, at the hospital. When a man's wife is dying, he belongs with her, not – not in Georgia." He begs Froggy, "Please. Try to understand. I can't—talk to anyone now."

To help his friend, Froggy tells Betty Meeks, who owns the lodge, that Charlie is the native of an exotic country who does not understand a word of English. Betty, who has never traveled, is delighted to cater for a stranger who is "as foreign as the day is long." At first, Charlie is appalled by Froggy's fabrication and protests that he can't pretend.

Froggy: (Trying not to shout.) Yer don't 'ave ter do anything! Yer sit there. Yer bring a bit o' glamour to a sweet old lady's twilight years, and yer bring yerself a bit o' quiet, eh? You said yer can't talk to anyone.
Charlie. No, I—I can. I was panicking. I—
Froggy. Yer can.
Charlie. Yes.
Froggy: Well, that's all right, then. You be the one to tell 'er.
Charlie: Tell her what?
Froggy: (Putting on coat.) Why, that we've lied to 'er. That we've raised 'er 'opes, only ter dash 'em to the ground again.
Charlie: We?
Froggy: Yes, well—I'll be glad I'm gone. I won't 'ave ter see 'er disappointed little eyes fill with tears, and watch 'er hackin' at 'er little wrists with a meat-knife. (Going.) Ta-ta.

At once, though, Charlie overhears a private and emotional conversation (Catherine discovers she is pregnant), and decides he had better perpetuate the ruse.

Before long, Charlie finds himself privy to assorted secrets and scandals freely discussed in front of him by the other visitors. These include spoiled but introspective heiress and Southern belle Catherine Simms and the man to whom she is somewhat reluctantly engaged, the Reverend David Lee, a seemingly good-natured preacher with a dark side. Her younger brother, Ellard, a somewhat "slow" boy (often thought of as a young Forrest Gump) is a simpleton who tries to "teach" Charlie how to speak English. Owen Musser, the racist county property inspector, plans to oust Betty and convert the lodge into a meeting place for the Ku Klux Klan.

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Wikipedia