Sanaz Toossi’s Pulitzer Prize-winning ENGLISH is a beautiful, well-paced exploration of language’s simultaneous ability to open up our worlds, and yet for new language learners, make them smaller in terms of what we can express. 

Toossi’s play shows us brief scenes in an English classroom in 2008 Karaj, Iran where teacher Marjan resides over her four pupils. Goli and Elham are preparing to take (or retake) the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) in preparation to study abroad in Australia or potentially the United States. Roya wants to learn English to communicate with her young granddaughter in Canada, as her son has forbidden her from speaking to her grandchild in her native Farsi. And lastly there’s Omid, who has a considerably advanced grasp on English, and whose reasons for taking the course are opaque. 

Toossi has her characters use unaccented English when speaking their native Farsi and accented English when they’re practicing English in class. It’s a brilliant choice that allows Toossi to explore the play’s themes without being too on the nose: All the characters in ENGLISH are learning the language in the hopes it will broaden their worldviews, but they find that their inability to express themselves and their personalities as fully in their second language presents a number of challenges (particularly in Elham’s case). 

Because the students all have varying motivations for taking Marjan’s class, Toossi uses those secret reveals to build narrative tension. While I understand the choice, I think some of the reveals seem underbaked as a result. 

The play is truly at its most poignant when it’s simply showing us scenes from the class. Overall, this is a prime example of how to show and not tell in a work of theater. Toossi has essayed that beautifully.

Directed by Iranian director Hamid Dehghani, Goodman Theatre’s ensemble expertly brings these characters to life. While the work the characters are doing in ENGLISH is serious and challenging, the play also has many legitimately funny moments, and this ensemble nails that humor as well. Roxanna Hope Radja has immense grace and presence as Marjan, who pushes for her students to only speak English in class. And while Marjan has an excellent command of the language after nine years living in Manchester, England, it becomes clear she has her own complicated feelings about speaking English — and Radja embodies that complexity beautifully as she slowly allows audiences to see more and more of her character. As Omid, Pej Vahdat is charming and self-assured; he takes particular delight in watching English-language movies with Marjan during her office hours so the two can converse further. Sahar Bibyan is soft-spoken as Roya, but she has some particularly fiery moments of frustration at her son. In one scene, she leaves a series of increasingly passive aggressive voicemails that demonstrate her English understanding, while Elham watches on. NIkki Massoud easily embodies one of the biggest personalities on stage as Elham; she’s passed the MCAT and she’s ready to study medicine in Australia, but she’s bewildered by her English studies. Massoud also elegantly portrays the shift between her character’s strong-willed personality in Farsi, and her dissatisfaction that she doesn’t feel that same ability to fully express herself that way in English. Shadee Vossoughi is sweet and earnest as Goli; she sometimes seems oblivious to the antics of her classmates, but she easily represents just how hard her character is trying in class. 

Particularly as performed by Goodman Theatre’s cast, ENGLISH is a simultaneous rich character study and an exploration of the power of language. By learning English, these characters hope they can seek new opportunities, but they also all ask themselves: What’s the cost of that for me and my identity when I express myself in my native language? Toossi smartly asks audiences to ponder that paradox. 

ENGLISH, a co-production with Guthrie Theater, runs through June 16, 2024 in the Owen Theatre at Goodman Theatre, 170 North Dearborn. Tickets are $15 – $55.

Visit goodmantheatre.org/english.

Photo Credit: Liz Lauren

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