English is a heartwarming story about discovering who we are, understanding our worth through culture, and discovering our identity through language. Produced by the Roundabout Theatre Company, this dramatic play made its debut on Broadway in January 2025 after its world premiere in the Atlantic Theatre Company in 2022, and after winning the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Set in an English-As-a-Foreign-Language classroom in Karaj, Iran, in the year 2008, English gives the audience a glimpse of what happens in the process of learning English as a foreign language. The cast is composed of five characters, four students from different walks of life and their reasons for taking the TOEFL exam, and their English teacher, who constantly pushes them to only speak English during class. The play is witty, funny, and so, so real.
For reference, the TOEFL (Test Of English as a Foreign Language) is a standardized English test primarily taken by students applying to universities in English-speaking countries or as proof of English ability needed for immigration documents. I am familiar with this rigorous 3-hour test, as I took it to prove my English proficiency to apply to acting school in NYC. During the test, which is administered through a computer, applicants are evaluated in reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills at a learning center with 20 other people trying to prove their language is good enough to partake in English speaking society. In other words, it is a very stressful experience! Understanding this test is important because it is a key element of the play; it is omnipresent and the story revolves around individuals running against time, and their personal challenges related to language, to pass the test, and ultimately, achieve their dreams.
This play shows us the importance of language in our life as a form of cultural identity, and the complex challenges that people go through to embrace themselves as they are through a foreign language. Each character’s story shows us a different example of this. Let’s break it down!
Elham, a medical student who passed the MCAT and is preparing to take the TOEFL (for the fifth time) to continue her medical career in Australia. She shows us how difficult it can be to feel like you have to let go of who you are in order to fit into a different society, when you don’t sound like the majority, and the frustration of the constant reminder of how we are sometimes judged by the level of our second language and not by our true character.
In contrast, we have Goli, a sweet 18 year old who is excited for all the hopes and possibilities that learning English can bring to her future. She shows us that learning a new language is possible and can even be fun through curiosity, practice, dedication, and by exploring the contrasts with our native languages.
Moving on to Roya, an elegant grandmother with an unwavering pride and loyalty to her culture and family, but whose family lives in Canada. She shows us how difficult it is to connect with her offspring after they have been acculturated elsewhere, and the longing to pass on her culture to her granddaughter from a distance and away from home.
The fourth student, Omid, is more advanced in his English proficiency due to having family in the United States of America. He finds himself questioning his, and everyone else’s identity while he studies to prove his English ability for his American citizenship, showing us the complex experience and struggling sentiment of belonging of those nationals who are part of a diaspora.
Finally, Marjan, their English teacher who lived in London and came back home to share her love for the English language (among other reasons), but whose loyalty to her culture is questioned as she pushes her students to only speak English in the classroom. She shows us the identity challenges of migrants or diasporic individuals who experience feelings of not belonging to neither the culture they come from, nor the culture they are assimilating to, and how the action of speaking a language becomes a form of expression and statement of identity, however complex. Additionally, she shows us how we can become attached to a foreign language and the social ideals they represent and how it can become a form of escapism from our realities.
Each character allows us to see how complex and political learning a new language can be, and how learning a foreign language, English in particular, has a great impact on diverse individuals’ psyche and identity.
Ok, so now you may be thinking- if the characters are learning English, then what language is this played in? Is it in their native language, Farsi? The answer is… yes and no. You see, all of the characters speak their native language, Farsi, while they find themselves in an English only classroom. But the script is all in English, and the actors are all performing in English. How is this possible!? That is the result of brilliant writing, directing, and superb performance. We, the audience, understand when the characters are “practicing English” because actors pronounce the words with a Farsi accent and converse with a limited English vocabulary, according to each of the characters’ level of conversational English.
Meanwhile, when the characters are “speaking Farsi,” the actors speak English with an American pronunciation and with more vocabulary to express themselves. They pull this off so well that we believe they are seamlessly speaking two languages. As a bilingual performer myself, I am blown away by the results considering how challenging this can be. I could see the code-switching that is embedded in the script and brought to life, through the sometimes hilarious and, at times frustrating, that is the experience of learning a foreign language.
The set design is minimalist; a rotating giant cube split diagonally in half which moves slowly to depict the passing of time with the help of the beautiful lightning design. Inside this cube is where all the learning happens, and all the peculiar items we could find in a classroom in the year 2008, including an AVI set with vhs playing Julia Roberts in the movie “Notting Hill”, boom box playing Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs” pop song, and that amazed expression of seeing an iPhone for the first time.
These pop-culture elements remind us of how we can learn a new language through music and movies. However, it also shows how us foreigners may internalize limited social ideals about a foreign culture, in this story’s case- American culture, depending on the narratives and stories represented in the mainstream media. English on Broadway shows us what happens at the other end of the television, and the realities of those consuming the images that come from the USA and other Anglo-Saxon countries, which is in turn, refreshing and needed on our American stages. English will run until March 2nd, 2025 at the Todd Haimes Theatre. Don’t miss out on this treasure of a play!
Review by Larissa Santiago Escaso
IG: @larissasantiagofficial