Sanaz Toossi’s “English” Delivers an Intimate Exploration of Language and Identity
Photo Credit: Maria Baranova
Sanaz Toossi’s English, now on Broadway for a limited run, is a masterfully crafted exploration of language as both a bridge and a barrier—a means of survival and a source of alienation. Set in 2008 in a classroom in Karaj, Iran, the play follows four adult students preparing for the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) exam, each confronting the cost of fluency. Through a brilliantly simple yet deeply effective theatrical device—thick Iranian accents when the characters speak English, unaccented English when they switch to their native Farsi—Toossi makes tangible the dissonance of existing between two linguistic worlds.
At the heart of the play is Elham (Tala Ashe), whose fierce intellect is often at odds with her frustration over mastering English. She has already aced the MCAT and secured a spot in an Australian medical school, yet her struggle with English threatens to derail her future. She frequently clashes with the nearly fluent Omid (Hadi Tabbal), whose motivation for passing the TOEFL is not academic but bureaucratic—his green card application hinges on it. Roya (Pooya Mohseni) studies for love, desperate to reunite with her son in Canada, who insists she speak only English around his daughter. Goli (Ava Lalezarzadeh), the youngest and most eager of the group, approaches the language with optimism, still unsure of where it will take her. Presiding over them is their teacher, Marjan (Marjan Neshat), who returned to Iran after nearly a decade in Manchester. Marjan’s shifting accent betrays her internal conflict—she both resents and reveres English, trapped between her Iranian identity and the Western world’s standards of legitimacy.
Photo Credit: Michaelah Reynolds
Cast of English: Tala Ashe, Ava Lalezarzadeh, Pooya Mohseni, Marjan Neshat, Hadi Tabbal
But English is more than a play about language—it is a meditation on assimilation and the emotional toll of leaving parts of oneself behind. For Elham, fluency is not just a skill but a requirement for her ambitions. Yet Toossi makes clear that even mastery does not guarantee acceptance. The characters not only risk losing pieces of their identity while speaking English, but may also have to anglicize their names to belong. Marjan recalls calling herself “Mary” to fit in while living in England, a choice the other students critique. Roya resents that her son named his daughter Claire, a name she struggles to pronounce. These moments echo the broader immigrant experience, where English proficiency is often treated as a prerequisite for belonging—yet never a guarantee of full inclusion.
This tension extends beyond immigrant communities to anyone forced to assimilate at the expense of their own identity—compliance as a survival strategy. Nowhere is this more evident than in figures like Usha Vance and Melania Trump, both of whom have navigated spaces where fitting in demanded erasure. Usha, an Indian American lawyer and daughter of immigrants, stands beside a husband whose policies marginalize the very communities from which she comes. Similarly, Melania, an immigrant and non-native English speaker, has supported her husband’s hardline immigration policies, policies that contradict her own journey to American citizenship. Like Marjan, who alters her accent depending on her audience, both women have learned that assimilation often requires silence, erasure, and adaptation in ways that are not always voluntary.
Toossi does not offer easy answers. Instead, English captures the contradictions of assimilation—the longing for acceptance, the resentment of its compromises, and the aching question of whether fluency in another language expands or erases who we are. The play is especially resonant in a city like New York, where linguistic and cultural identity remain central to the immigrant experience. It forces us to ask: Does the ability to communicate across cultures outweigh the cost of losing a piece of ourselves? How much of our identity is entrenched in our mother tongue?
And perhaps, as Elham wryly suggests, the world would be a little better if everyone spoke Farsi.
This is a limited engagement for 66 performances only through Sunday, March 2, 2025.Tickets for English are currently available by calling 212.719.1300, online at roundabouttheatre.org, or in person at the Todd Haimes Theatre (227 West 42nd Street). For groups of 10 or more please call 212-719-9393 x 365 or email groupsales@roundabouttheatre.org.
#SanazToossi #TheaterReview #LanguageAndIdentity
