In this classroom, only English is spoken. The teacher, Marjan (Marjan Neshat), enforces this rule harshly — if you speak any other language, you get a tally mark. At five tallies, you are asked to leave.
For students who attend school in the United States, English is likely the primary language used in their classrooms. However, Marjan teaches in Iran, and her students are native Farsi speakers studying for the Test of English as a Foreign Language. The students struggle to communicate exclusively in English while also staying connected to their culture.
Written by Iranian American playwright Sanaz Toossi, “English” explores the impact of language on identity. The Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy is running at the Todd Haimes Theatre as part of Roundabout Theater Company’s 2024-25 season until March 2. It marks the Broadway debut for Toosi, director Knud Adams and the entire cast, and makes a confident debut among a tapestry of Broadway comedies.
When Marjan starts enforcing the no-Farsi rule, some of her students — the competitive Elham (Tala Ashe) and reserved Roya (Pooya Mohseni) — struggle in English, but persevere with a little help from Marjan. Omid (Hadi Tabbal), who quickly establishes himself as the most promising student, and Goli (Ava Lalezarzadeh) fare better with Marjan’s rule.
Elham’s desperation to be good at English is motivated by time — she dreams of becoming a medical student in Australia but has already failed the TOEFL five times. Her worries hinder her progress as she fears that learning English will blur her true Iranian identity. She finds the no-Farsi rule to be stifling. She can’t have a genuine conversation in English because it’s not the language she and her peers are connected to.
After Marjan accidentally reveals that Elham has failed the TOEFL before, Elham demands that Marjan apologize in Farsi for embarrassing her. Yet, Marjan refuses to break her own rule — she too feels the difficulty of operating in two languages, noticing her English skills weakening ever since she returned from the United Kingdom.
Roya also feels split between two cultures, compounded by the fact that she is both geographically and emotionally isolated from her son who moved to Canada. She cannot even pronounce her granddaughter’s English name — which she suspects is an intentional choice to move away from his Iranian roots as he also refuses to answer her calls.
The cast create well-developed characters and display remarkable accent proficiency. When characters speak in English, the actors sound accented and staccato. Their mother tongue, Farsi, is performed in English for accessibility to the audience. The switch to smooth and uninterrupted accents is a perfect representation of their familiarity with their mother tongue.
Adams’ direction is subtle and focused, navigating the numerous scene transitions with contemplative piano songs designed by Sinan Refik Zafar and movement that lead viewers’ eyes around Marsha Ginsberg’s rotating set. As the classroom revolves and actors enter and exit, the audience gets different perspectives — both interior and exterior — that reveal different sides of the characters. For example, Elham is more compassionate when seen outside the classroom, free from Marjan’s rule.
Enver Chakartash’s costumes gorgeously represent Iranian culture with vibrant hijabs and floral printed dresses. Even as characters move toward English fluency, Chakartash’s pieces physically remind us of the culture they come from. The lighting by Reza Behjat — the first Iranian lighting designer on Broadway — is dynamic, displaying striking shadows as the sun rises and sets.
Around the midpoint of the play, Behjat floods the stage with brilliant orange as Roya steps out of the classroom set and leaves voicemails in broken English for her distant son. She begs him to let her immigrate to Canada, and Mohseni’s face conveys the pain Roya feels as she is unable to speak perfect English. In that moment, “English” becomes not just about learning a language but rather the deeper struggle to be understood and understand others.
Contact Ethan Li at [email protected].
