Did I understand anything that was going on?" the protagonist asks near the start of Warren Leight's No Foreigners Beyond This Point. "Did it really end the way it ended?"

Andrew, the protagonist, is referring to six months in 1980 when he and another American taught English at a Chinese trade school in rural Canton.

Like his 1999 Tony Award-winning play Side Man, Leight's No Foreigners, which is receiving an intriguing world premiere at Center Stage, takes theatergoers into a largely unfamiliar world. In Side Man, it was the world of jazz musicians in the waning years of the big bands. In No Foreigners, it's a remote part of Communist China that had never had foreign visitors.

And there are other similarities. Like Side Man, No Foreigners is largely autobiographical, and once again, the protagonist serves as narrator. There's also a strong thematic link - both plays deal with the difficulty of communicating.

But even though Leight is an old hand at this theme, there are stretches in the first act when demonstrating it proves taxing in itself. For example, two of the characters are named Wang (a third is named Huang) and each of the actors cast in these roles also plays at least two others. The names are deliberately perplexing to the young American teachers, but the exigencies of casting may leave theatergoers perplexed as well.

Nor is No Foreigners merely about language difficulties between the Americans and Chinese. It's also about communication problems between the sexes. Andrew (played with naturalness and likability by Ean Sheehy) impetuously accepts the job in China after running into an old high school friend, Paula (winsomely played by Carrie Preston), on whom he had a crush.

The parallels between Andrew's attempts to understand the Chinese and his attempts to understand Paula make interesting dramatic fodder. But as the play now stands, instead of the two threads informing each other, the romantic thread gets short shrift.

The play is told in flashback, and though we see that Andrew eventually grows into a mature, grounded man, Leight never shows us how the lessons Andrew learned from his experiences in China contributed to that maturity. In other words, there's a gap in this play about communication gaps.

Trust is another theme Leight explores in the play. The Chinese staffers at the school are expected to spy on the Americans and report to the vice principal (a dogmatic John Woo Taak Kwon), who is a Party representative. Even the young maid (played by Nancy Wu in a manner both sweet and heartbreaking) is called upon to report on the amount of toilet paper and soap the Americans use.

And, just as the Chinese breach the Americans' trust, so, in the end, does Paula breach Andrew's trust by not being open about her intentions. Rifts in communication and trust, Leight seems to be saying, may be exacerbated by cultural differences, but they are basic human problems.

Andrew, who becomes a writer, never moves beyond the position of observer, and, as the vice principal puts it, he sees things in terms of "good or bad, black and white." Paula, on the other hand, is always taking photographs, but as time goes on, she manages to become part of the picture.

The play, directed by Tim Vasen, has a number of lovely scenes, including an especially transcendent one in the second act, when a timid senior language teacher (Les J.N. Mau as a genuinely gentle man) gives a banquet to celebrate the Harvest Moon. As the characters waltz in rooms where no one has danced for years, language and emotional barriers briefly lift, along with the dancers' spirits.

Designer Christine Jones' set frames the stage with an imposing brick and cement arch, inside which the sparse, functional furnishings suggest the school's utilitarianism, while an enormous black-and-white Chinese painting on the back wall seems to reflects Andrew's viewpoint.

No Foreigners is the first of two commissioned scripts to be produced by Center Stage this season. The productions are a bold statement of support for new American playwriting. Being among the first to see Leight's latest work is a little like being the first American in rural 1980s China. The experience may not always be smooth, but it is eye-opening and at times even exhilarating.

On Stage

What: No Foreigners Beyond This Point

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 7:30 p.m. most Sundays; matinees at 2 p.m. Sundays and most Saturdays. Through Dec. 22

Where: Center Stage, 700 N. Calvert St.

Tickets: $10-$50

Call: 410-332-0033