At People's Light, most elements are well served, and the show is always charming. But Charlie's evolution doesn't take flight as it should, so the ultimate sense of satisfaction is frustratingly just out of reach.

Charlie is a timid Englishman who has been dropped off at the unlikeliest of places—a dilapidated fishing lodge in rural (by which I mean hick) Georgia. (You'll need to buy into this setup, though it's the most implausible part of Shue's otherwise masterful script.) Charlie is so shy, so broken and so convinced of his dullness that he wants no one to speak to him. Not ever.

So Charlie pretends to be the titular Foreigner who speaks no English—and when it's necessary to cover his tracks, he invents a bizarre "language" that drifts across several continents.

The rest of the lodge residents are mostly charmed, or at least too distracted to notice. There's Betty, the sweet and dotty proprietress who fears the building will be sold out from under her. There's Catherine, a bitchy former debutante, now engaged to the pious Rev. David Lee. There's Catherine's dull-witted brother, Ellard. There's Owen, who is so trashy that he constitutes a one-man trailer park.

And there are any number of plot twists, mostly nefarious (I'll only say that the survival of the white brotherhood is at stake), and some wonderful bits, including Charlie's extemporized, multilingual storytelling.

That storytelling monologue is the crowning moment of Pete Pryor's performance, as it should be. He has all the skills to be a marvelous Charlie, but somehow hasn't quite paced out the character arc—from depressed and shy, to fearful, to growing confidence and enjoyment. It's almost there, but not quite.

So the great performance is Jeb Kreager as Ellard, who has impeccable comic timing and deep humanity. The rest of the cast is generally fine, with lovely work from Elizabeth Webster (Catherine), Alda Cortese (Betty) and Graham Smith (Owen).

People's Light offers its usual handsome production values, and David Ingram's direction is fluent. If you haven't seen The Foreigner, take advantage of this opportunity. But I'd say this is a good solid game, rather than a knock-'em-out-of-the-park one.

THE FOREIGNER

Through July 23, People's Light and Theatre, 39 Conestoga Rd., Malvern, 610-647-1900