THE FOREIGNER BY LARRY SHUE - Book Report/Review Example

(Assignment) book review ‘The Foreigner’ by Larry Shue ‘The Foreigner’, the outstanding comic play attributed to by Larry Shue’s penmanship was produced by The Public Theatre in 1996. The writer has demonstrated exceeding care to apply every element of comedy throughout this play. The background of the play is Georgian Retreat owned by Betty Meeks. Froggie LeSeuer visits the Georgian Retreat with his friend Charlie Baker who is a depressed husband. Although Charlie is presented as a depressed person at the beginning of the play, his new way of life transforms him into a new personality and determines the remaining part of the play.

Since Charlie does not want to speak to anyone, Froggie tells everyone that his friend is very poor in English. Consequently, other persons treat Charlie with sympathy and persuade him to be confident. The real fun of the story lies with this falsification. Since Charlie acts as a man who does not know English, all others tell secrets in the presence Charlie and thus make a sequence of comic scenes. However, this strange life makes Charlie confident to do things his own way. He helps Ellard and his sister Catherine to save their properties from David, Catherine’s fiance.

According to Andrucki, “the popularity of Shue’s work rests on its comic appeal to three constants in human experience: the anguish of shyness, the liberating power of disguise, and the pitfalls of language” (Andrucki). Shue’s play gives great emphasis on the significance of communication in a person’s life. The writer could clearly reflect the emotional expressions of people when they meet a foreigner. The southern setting also plays vital role in forming the play more hilarious. The characters that belong to Ku Klux Klan express their anger toward the foreigner on the ground of their stereotypical convictions about race, religion, and nationality.

As the play progresses, the writer fixes the confrontation between Klansmen and other characters as the focal point of play. The play also reflects how situational variance may affect human minds. For instance, with the help of David’s character, Shue precisely illustrates the extent to which a human can transfer a situation by exerting the power of communication. Charlie’s extreme power of imagination has also played an inevitable role in preserving the intensity of fun in the play. At the same time, Shue also points out the contrasting side of the issue by presenting the good character Charlie in the role of a rescuer.

Charlie’s exciting performance brings light into a world that was in darkness and danger; by this, the writer reiterates a general fact that no one can deceive others for long time. Anyway, after a sequence of incessant confusion and anxiety, the play moves toward a happy ending. At the end of the play, David’s intentions and his identity are revealed and which lead to the breakage of his engagement to Catherine. The efficient interventions of Charlie saves the lodge from its predators; Catherine and her younger brother Ellard join with Betty to rebuild the lodge into a successful inn.

In short, the play is a real entertainer and is relevant to the increasingly diverse societies of developed nations where ethnicity and regionalism has been swelling for the recent decades. The play invokes our attention to the inevitability of resisting the mounting misanthropic notions across the world. Works Cited Andrucki, Martin. The Foreigner: by Larry Shue. n.d. web 17 Feb 2011 http://www.thepublictheatre.org/education/study_guides/1995-96/The_Foreigner.html Shue, Larry. The Foreigner.

Dramatists Play Service, 1985. Print.