Roundabout Theatre Company's Broadway production of Sanaz Toossi's English began previews January 3 at the Todd Haimes Theatre ahead of a January 23 opening night. Since its 2022 Off-Broadway world premiere, English has received a Pulitzer Prize and a multitude of other awards. For Toossi, "[getting] to do it again, without the terror of 'Is this play good?'...it's bliss."
The play unfolds in an Iranian classroom, where adult English learners practice for their proficiency exam. As they leapfrog through a linguistic playground, their wildly different dreams, frustrations, and secrets come to light.
"I wrote English in response to a travel ban that was enacted in 2017," explains Toossi. "And I'm the proud daughter of two Iranian immigrants who speak English as a second language. When you speak with an accent, you are often perceived to be less intelligent, less human, something lesser than yourself."
The full Off-Broadway cast are reprising their work on the Main Stem, including Tala Ashe as Elham, Ava Lalezarzadeh as Goli, Pooya Mohseni as Roya, Marjan Neshat as Marjan, and Hadi Tabbal as Omid. Understudies for the production include Joe Joseph, Roxanna Hope Radja, and Shadee Vossoughi.
Three years after English's world premiere, a co-production between Roundabout Theatre Company and Atlantic Theater Company, the company is still making new discoveries.
"I knew it was a great play the moment I read it. But returning to it three years later—this is a great American play," Ashe says. "In the way that when you read Chekov, when you read Shakespeare, there's always more to mine in it."
"For me, it's the sophistication of [Toossi's] characterization, her handling of psychology, [and] the sparkling dialogue that feels true to real life," adds director Knud Adams.
Through both productions, English has done the important work of introducing its audiences to characters from a region that is typically villainized in American media. "English challenges stereotypes," Mohseni says. "These people that live in that country that people have a whole lot of thoughts about...they're a sister, and a wife, and a mother, and a grandmother. They have wants, and desires, and they're elegant, and they're sassy, and they're fabulous."
English will run for a strictly limited 66-performance engagement through March 2.
The production marks Toossi and Adams' Broadway debuts, as well as the Broadway debut of the entire cast. In addition to Toossi winning the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the premiere production won the 2023 Obie Award for Best New American Play.
The Broadway creative team includes set designer Marsha Ginsberg, costume designer Enver Chakartash, lighting designer Reza Behjat, and sound designer Sinan Refik Zafar. The production designer is Ruey Horng Sun. The production stage manager is Alex H. Hajjar, and production management is by Aurora Productions. The production's general manager is Denise Cooper. Casting is by Stephen Kopel.
Visit RoundaboutTheatre.org.
