Review: ENGLISH at Berkeley Rep Shows How Language Runs Deeper Than Just Words

One of the great joys of attending theatre these days is seeing how the imperative to make the experience more inclusive and welcoming benefits all of us, no matter what our background is. How thrilling it is to get to experience new kinds of stories and gain a deeper understanding of cultures that haven't typically been depicted on the American stage, not to mention the added bonus of enjoying the full range of some phenomenal actors whose talents were under-utilized in the past. Berkeley Repertory Theatre's West Coast premiere of Sanaz Toossi's beguiling comic drama English scores on all of those counts.

Toossi's play presents a deceptively straightforward scenario as it depicts a small group of adult students in 2008 Iran as they meet for an Advanced English class. They're taking the class to prepare for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), the passing of which could bring them various advantages in their lives. The four students are types that will likely be familiar to anyone who's ever taken a language class of any kind, though each have fascinating backstories. There's Goli, the naively enthusiastic young woman who's perhaps a bit more enamored with the English language than she should be; Elham, the prickly student who struggles to master an acceptable accent; Roya, the dignified elder who is careful to keep her emotions below the surface; and Omid, the star student already so fluent in English that it annoys the others, leading them to question why he is even in their class.

While we never see the characters outside of the classroom, as their sessions unfold we gradually learn not only about their individual motives for taking the class, but how they see themselves in relation to their native language and culture as they grapple with the primacy of the English language in the larger world. As one of the students notes late in the play, when speaking in a language that's not your own, it always feels like you are speaking too loudly. Even with complete fluency, just the vestige of an accent inevitably brings unwanted attention. I have to say that as a native English-speaker who has lived my entire life in the U.S., that one line opened up a world of insights to me.

While much of Toossi's dialog is artfully elliptical, her master stroke is the way she differentiates when characters occasionally lapse into Farsi, despite the repeated admonitions of their teacher Marjan to speak only English in class. As the entire play (save for a brief coda) is performed in English, Toossi has the actors use Iranian accents to denote when they're speaking English, and unaccented American vernacular when they're communicating in Farsi. It takes your ear a moment to adjust to this, but once you do, it really illuminates the characters. When they speak with accents, their syntax is stilted and generic. When they speak without accents, their language is more natural and nuanced, and their individual personalities and true thoughts and feelings emerge.

Mina Morita has directed her impeccable cast with a light hand, which is exactly what this subtly penetrating play calls for. The one noticeable director's touch is her choice to often place an actor with their back to the audience in a chair down center on the Peet's Theatre thrust stage. It's a clever way of inviting us into the action while still keeping us at a remove, effectively turning us into flies on the wall. Annie Smart's scenic design is crisp and understated, suggesting a pleasant if spartan community center. Shahrzad Mazaheri's costumes neatly delineate the differences between characters, particularly in the variations of head scarves for the women and how they choose to wear them. I also loved how Omid's multi-layered clothing (light jacket over a zippered vest over a collared shirt over a T-shirt) gives us clues to his complicated history. Reza Behjat's warm lighting demarcates the individual class sessions and different times of day without striving for effect. Mikhail Fiksel's sound design and tinkly original underscoring provide an atmospheric throughline for the evening.

The five actors, all previously unfamiliar to me, gave winning performances across the board. While there's not a weak link in the bunch, I was entranced by three performances in particular. Sarah Nina Hayon as Roya projected a complicated mixture of warmth and imperiousness that kept me wanting to know more about this woman and drawing me into her story. As Elham, the student most overtly struggling with her place in the world, Mehry Eslaminia showed the self-doubt underlying her character's surface bravado, thus allowing us to feel the hurt behind her peevishness. Amir Malaklou was a delight as the terminally lost and dislocated Omid, confident and flirtatious as he nonchalantly showed off for Marjan's approval before tamping things down lest his cover be blown. Once we learn Omid's multicultural history, all of Malaklou's choices as an actor - his halting physicality, his suavity - make perfect sense in retrospect.

But then, the whole play is like that - disarming and disorienting in equal measure as the layers continually peel back and we gradually put the pieces together. Every seemingly offhand comical observation is met with a more nuanced and thoughtful response. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems and every choice has far-reaching consequences. In other words, it's much like the world we're all living in right now. Kudos to Berkeley Rep for bringing English to the Bay Area and giving it such a beautiful mounting.

(all photos by Alessandra Mello)

English runs through Sunday May 7th at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2015 Addison St., Berkeley, CA. Running time is approximately 100 minutes, no intermission. For tickets and additional information, visit www.berkeleyrep.org or call 510-647-2949.

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