English at Capital Stage

English

by Sanaz Toossi

January 29 – March 2, 2025
2023 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Drama
2023 Obie Award Winner for Best New American Play
2022 Lucile Lortel Award Winner for Outstanding Play
Sacramento Premiere

It’s 2008, and four Iranians assemble triweekly in a TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) class in Karaj, Iran. The students are led by Marjan, an anglophile who abolishes Farsi from her classroom. They translate Ricky Martin and endure major preposition confusion; they discover how to be funny in English and ponder what they will lose in the process. As the class slowly devolves into a linguistic mess, some students cling tighter to their mother tongue while others embrace the possibilities of a new language.

NY TIMES CRITIC’S PICK! “A rich new play… both contemplative and comic, it nails every opportunity for big laughs as its English-learning characters struggle with accents and idioms. But the laughter provides cover for the deeper idea that their struggle is not just linguistic.” –THE NEW YORK TIMES

Authors

• Sanaz Toossi