English by Sanaz Toossi
The Roundabout Theatre Retains Original Cast of Iranian Actors
By: Karen Isaacs - Feb 27, 2025
The Pulitzer Prize-winning play English by Sanaz Toossi raises fascinating questions about the interconnections of language, culture, and identity. Does learning a new language result in the loss of our sense of self? Does adapting to a new culture mean you are rejecting your heritage?
These questions are illustrated by the four students and the teacher of a class preparing students to take the TOEFL exam in Karaj, Iran, in 2008. This is one of the exams that certify English proficiency for college or immigration. Each has a reason for wanting to learn English and to pass the proficiency exam: Roya wants to emigrate to Canada to live with her son and granddaughter; Omid has a green card interview in the not-so-distant future; Elham has been accepted to an Australian medical school. The young woman, Goli is there because she feels learning English will be helpful.
Roya and Elham are both resistant. Roya resents that her son has assimilated into Canadian culture, including changing his name and not wanting his daughter to learn Farsi. Elham is angry about the necessity for English fluency, which may be the reason she has failed the exam multiple times. As she points out, the Farsi language and Iranian culture have an older history than English. Omid seems very fluent, so you wonder why he is there.
The teacher, Marjam, spent nine years in England but moved back and is married to someone who does not speak English. She mentions that she was “Mary” in England and that she became a different person whom she liked.
The play differentiates when the students are speaking English (halting speech and simple sentence construction) and reverting to Farsi, despite the teacher’s admonishments. When speaking Farsi, the characters speak at a more normal pace and use a more complex sentence structure. But at times, it can be confusing, particularly at the beginning, until you recognize what is going on.
As the play goes on, Marjam seems to accept more and more the views of Roya and Elham; in fact, her English becomes more halting than earlier in the play.
Underlying it are thoughts about cultural heritage, pride, and patriotism, as well as how we see ourselves. It is clear that Marjam saw herself differently as Mary and even viewed the world differently. Yet the lure of her native culture drew her back to Iran.
What was interesting is that Toossi completely ignores the political realities of 2008, when there was a major crackdown on the One Million Signatures Campaign which focuses on women’s rights. The following year saw a rise in political prosecution and arrests of people viewed as dissidents of the Islamic regime.
The Roundabout Theatre production retains the off-Broadway cast, all Iranian-American actors. They are a true ensemble. Each peels back the layers of their characters’ motivations, history, and, at times, their delusions. Marjan Neshat (Marjam) has a more difficult task; her backstory is the least clear. One wonders how a non-Iranian cast would affect the work.
Director Knud Adams does a skillful job with these actors and this work.
The scenic design by Marsha Ginsberg features a large, windowed classroom that rotates. At times, my vantage point was partially blocked by a corner post, which was annoying.
You will find yourself thinking about this play for days afterward.