Foriegner ★★★

Foriegner, created by the Koan Brothers (Sohrab Haghverdi, Benjamin Rosenthal, and Mason Rosenthal) and performed by the fearless Haghverdi, describes itself as an “autobiographical anti-identity clown show”, but the production most certainly does have an identity that will not soon be forgotten by anyone who sees it; at show’s end, Haghverdi pees into a plastic bottle in full view of the audience, then drinks his own urine.

How about that for a curtain closer?

Revealing the public wee at the end is not a spoiler; a bottle labeled urine can be seen on stage at the start of the show — Foriegner swims thematically in anger and bodily fluids — and Haghverdi announces what he’s going to do long before the grand piss.

If only the rest of the show were as memorably strong.

Born in Iran but a longtime resident immigrant of the United States, Haghverdi spends the first full half of his show explaining how all that follows can be processed. That second half features a series of disparate absurdities, including pre-filmed video commentary by Summerhall CEO Sam Gough extolling the virtues of the craziness using all the virtuous Summerhall language one would expect.

As a theatrical metaphor for the horrors and insanity of America’s current immigration system, the messiness works. But the overly long introduction for that mess dilutes the production’s impact, as does the actual opening gambit that precedes the introduction, several minutes where Haghverdi just moves from one spot to another, coughing.

The audience didn’t know how to respond to the insistent coughing, and though that discomfort was likely the point, it also fragmented the audience immediately into two camps: those who saw the retching as a painful statement by an Iranian immigrant struggling to find his place in the world, and those who thought it was a comic bit.

Perhaps it was both. But like most of the show, including the thirst-reducing climax, the lasting result is one of confusion rather than empathy.