IF YOU GOWhat: “The Foreigner.”When: 8 p.m. today, Saturday and May 13-14; 2:30 p.m. May 15.Where: Oak Street Playhouse, First-Centenary United Methodist Church, 419 McCallie Ave.Admission: $10 adults, $5 students.Phone: 756-2428.Website: www.oakstreetplayhouse.com
If there’s a lesson to be taken from “The Foreigner,” it is this: Don’t assume to know someone before you know that person.
“It’s a good lesson about not jumping to conclusions and not letting our prejudices determine how we react to and deal with people,” said Rodney Strong, who directs the production, written by late American playwright Larry Shue. “The Foreigner” opens tonight at the Oak Street Playhouse.
Set in a hunting lodge in South Georgia, the play centers on Charlie, an Englishman who has some, perhaps, social anxieties. Strong described him as a “shy kind of guy who is not very outgoing, doesn’t like to converse with people.”
To put Charlie more at ease, his weekend companion claims Charlie speaks no English, and thus he becomes privy to information one would not reveal in front of a stranger, if the stranger were able to understand the conversation.