Hilarious, high-energy cast makes for a fine ‘Foreigner’

Spokane Civic Theatre crowds can’t often be described as raucous, but “The Foreigner” certainly riled up a full house on Saturday.

The elderly lady behind me said, as she was leaving, that she “laughed so hard that she was going to need a new laugh button.” (!??!)

Larry Shue’s 1982 comedy of rednecks and mistaken identities has delivered laughs every single time I’ve seen it, at least a half-dozen times, but I can safely say that at no previous time has a director nailed it so thoroughly as Wes Dietrick does with this production.

One thing is obvious from the beginning: He told his cast that, in this show, the energy couldn’t possibly be too high.

Everybody goes at high speed and high volume, all the time. The best way to describe it would be to say that virtually all seven cast members are in full Jim Carrey mode.

For some shows, this might be overkill, but “The Foreigner” is a kind of early precursor to the “Dumb and Dumber” brand of comedy, which means it can’t be played too broadly. This is a cast confident enough to swing for a home run in nearly every scene – and usually connect.

Shue’s script is a model of comic simplicity. Charlie Baker, a shy Englishman who has never “acquired a personality,” arrives at a remote Georgia fishing lodge. He pretends he can’t speak English so he won’t have to talk to anyone. So everyone else talks to him and around him, including some sinister plotters, and eventually Charlie, “the foreigner,” saves the day.

It’s evident that a former actor wrote this play. The lines don’t always look hysterical on the page, but they always seem to have the correct comic “beat” on the stage. Shue also wrote in some terrific virtuoso physical turns.

Dietrick and his cast absolutely nail these sequences: The scene in which Charlie imitates everything that Ellard Simms does at the kitchen table, including placing a glass atop his head, and the scene in which Charlie jumps around like a jack-in-the-box.

The casting is so solid, I want to give everyone their due, beginning at the top:

Joe Vander Weil as Charlie Baker: He plays the early, silent scenes with a wonderful Stan Laurel deadpan.

As the show goes on, he demonstrates a clown’s gift for timing and physical humor.

His crazy dance ritual from his “foreign homeland” had the audience gasping for air.

Kathie Doyle-Lipe as Betty Meeks: She’s already known as Spokane’s most gifted comedienne, and here she added “elderly Georgia hick” to her resume. She slayed the crowd with her wild-grandma antics and flirty glances.

Andrew Biviano as Ellard Simms: He’s an attorney in real life, but here he was absolutely hysterical as a sort of hybrid between Jim Carrey and Gomer Pyle. Ellard is not the brightest candle on the cake, but Biviano had us rooting for him all the way.

Kari Severns as Catherine Simms: She was the blonde ex-debutante, with just the right combination of haughty princess and adorable young thing. Her timing and line-readings were top-notch.

Jaylan Renz as the Rev. David Lee: He bounced around the stage with the manic energy of Tom Cruise on Oprah’s couch.

Troy Heppner as Froggy LeSueur: He got lots of laughs as a larger-than-life version of a blowhard British Army sergeant.

Will Gilman as Owen Musser: He embodied that frightening type, a man even dumber than he is mean. Just don’t call him dumb.

Two other deserving names: set designer David Baker and technical director Peter Hardie, who filled the stage with a vast log cabin complete with mounted deer heads and glowing fireplace.

It was a warm and happy place to spend a few hours. Just be careful of your laugh button.

“The Foreigner” continues through April 20. Call (509) 325-2507.