Review: Learn ENGLISH at The Alliance

Winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and praised by New York Theater Guide as "a lively comedy and a profound exploration of the essence of communication and understanding," ENGLISH by Sanaz Toossi, kicks off Alliance Theatre's 2023/24 season on the Hertz Stage until September 17th, 2023. A comedy of miscommunication, ENGLISH explores the crossroads of how we use language to communicate belonging and identify.

Director Shadi Ghaheri questions “Who would I be if I didn’t need to leave my home, choose another language, therefore find another life through it? Who would I be if I could have the privilege of not thinking about this question? Each one of these characters have to sacrifice parts of themselves in the English language and wonder, ‘Would I love myself in English, like I do in my own language, Farsi?’” 

The first rule of the "English Only" club is to absolutely talk about the "English Only" club, as much as they'd like, but definitely in "English only." The play is set in an Iranian classroom where four Iranian adults are preparing for the TOEFL—the Test of English as a Foreign Language. Every character has something at stake. If they don't pass the test, they will fail — at their next milestone, their next level, their next life. Every character is written with a personality to entice, a painful secret to learn, and a clear trajectory. Audiences will root for each of them to succeed. It's an expert derision of a worldly microcosm and you can see yourself in each of them.

The cast features stellar physical and grounded performances by Auveen Dezgaran as Goli; Lilly Heidari as Jennifer (voiceover), Ash Kahn as Omid, Adir Lev Mann as Coach (Voiceover) and Nader (Voiceover), Pooya Mohseni as Marjan, Sade Namei as Elham, Sayé Yabandeh as Roya. Understudies include Lilly Heidari, Adir Lev Mann, Laurie Shireen Sanii and Golbanoo Setayesh. 

Costumes are designed by Afsaneh Aayani; Lighting, Ben Rawson; Sound Design by Bahar Royaee; Scene Designer is Sadra Tehrani; Dialect Coach is Ana Bayat; and Dramaturg is Diana Fathi. Ghaheri says, "ENGLISH is a beautiful invitation to its audience to see belonging and the subject of identity in a different perspective. To melt in a world where a group of people are trying to find another life through a language that offers them more than their own! Or at least that is the promise! It must be nice to safely and simply belong where you are born to live! Not all human beings around the world have this privilege!”

Photo: Greg Mooney