THEATER REVIEW / ‘THE FOREIGNER’ : Frenzied Fun : With the plot and relationships carefully set up, Camarillo production’s pace is fast, the results, enjoyable.

Larry Shue’s farce “The Foreigner” is a community theater favorite; less than four months ago, three productions could be found between the West Valley and Santa Barbara, all running more or less concurrently.

A new production can be seen at the Faye Renee Dinner Theatre held at Ottavio’s Banquet Facilities in Camarillo. How does it compare to the Simi Valley version--one of the above-mentioned trio?

Well, it manages to be both stronger and weaker.

Martin Horsey stars as Charlie Baker. An Englishman vacationing in rural Georgia, he is forced by circumstance to pass himself off as a “foreigner” of indeterminate nationality who speaks no English.

Terry Fishman plays “Froggy” LeSueur, a British Army demolition expert who got his old friend into this fix.

Nabisco doesn’t make crackers as thick as the rest of the characters in “The Foreigner.”

There is a fishing lodge owner who speaks to Baker much the way you’d talk to a parrot; there’s a naive young woman and her country preacher fiance; the young woman’s retarded brother, and a nasty local who aspires to be the town sheriff.

Though the play is said to be set in “the recent past,” playwright Shue asks us to believe that none of these people has ever seen or heard a foreigner; perhaps this particular corner of Georgia is out of the reach of radio, television or print media.

Allow for that major contrivance, and the play’s a lot of fun.

After a slow beginning in which the plot and relationships are carefully set up, the action pitches into a frenzy.

Director Mary Lee Hulette keeps things moving with precision, a feat that’s particularly impressive given the limited scope of the Faye Renee stage.

Martin Horsey is fine as Charlie Baker, where Marc Silver was sublimely funny in the Santa Susana Repertory version.

But the Camarillo cast is more consistent, with Lenore Gabel as flighty lodge owner Betty Meeks, and Denise Stradling and John Hulette as Catherine Simms and the Rev. David Marshall Lee.

James Arthur Pilkington is genuinely threatening as would-be sheriff Owen Musser, and Mario Shawn Marino is a riot as Ellard Simms--compared to him, the kid on the porch in “Deliverance” could be head of the local Mensa chapter.

Tom Murry’s set and Royal E. Jensen’s lights are fine.

Whoever handled the sound managed on opening night to come up with the world’s loudest thunderstorm--turning the volume down a notch or two would make it easier for the actors to pitch their lines.

WHERE AND WHEN

“The Foreigner” continues through Aug. 15 at Ottavio’s Banquet Facilities, 340 N. Mobil Ave., in Camarillo. Doors open at 6:45 p.m. Thursdays, and 7:15 p.m. on Friday and Saturdays, with dinner served at 6:45 and 7:15 respectively, and the show following. Thursday’s dinner consists of a pasta buffet, with tickets costing $22.75. Friday and Saturday performances include a choice of two entrees, with tickets at $32.50. All tickets include dinner, nonalcoholic beverage, tax and tip, and a full cash bar is available. For reservations or further information, call 484-9909.