How ENGLISH Is Shining a Spotlight on a New Kind of Middle Eastern Story

Sanaz Toossi's Pulitzer Prize-winning play English is entering its final weeks on Broadway. The new play, presented by Roundabout Theare Company and directed by Knud Adams, is all about the power of communication and the part language plays in shaping our identity. 

The comedy 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. Can they overcome the limits of language to discover what they really want to say? 

Bringing this acclaimed story to Broadway is an honor that the company does not take lightly. "I think from the outside it seems like this play is a play about four students and a teacher learning English, but really at the heart it's about what it's like to be an insider and what it's like to be an outsider," Ava Lalezarzadeh told BroadwayWorld. "I think all audience members can resonate with what it's like to be on the inside and to be on the outside, and we've all felt that way."

"When I was a kid, I thought, 'Oh, maybe one day I'll do Chekhov or Shakespeare.' It never occurred to me that I could do something that would be this close to home," explained Tala Ashe. "I think it's a beautiful play that  happens to be about Middle Eastern characters, and I hope that it encourages more plays like this that are kind of subtle. It is inherently political, but it is not sort of pushing an agenda, but it's really just showing the humanity of these characters and we need more of that."

Hadi Tabbal echoed her sentiments. "I am an immigrant. I came here from another country. To be able to share with audiences a piece about communication and language and be able to basically be on stage and make people laugh and sometimes cry about what it means to be an other and what it is to learn the language of the world and what gets lost or gained from that rings true to a lot of my experiences.

"I think I now understand what it's like as an immigrant and also as someone from a minority group to see yourself on stage, to also tell stories that are so far from truly stupid cliches about who we are. This is a play about people who are just like anyone else and I think the audience sees themself in us, even though we are in the suburbs of Tehran in Iran... and that means the world."

"I feel like Middle Easterners for so long have been tasked in giving a history lesson," added Marjan Neshat. "I feel like in this play, they are the most themselves when they're speaking the way that we speak. It's a play that actually is about Middle Easterners, but it could be about anyone who is trying to learn a language or to fit in. And at the same time, we get to show who we are through behavior and through romance and through humor, which I think is very rare."

"Every night I'm on that stage and as the characters speak I'm like, 'Oh I knew this woman growing up or that character is kind of like my grandmother!' I feel that this [play] is a representation of these people in a way that has never been done before," said Pooya Mohseni. "It's not about tragedy. It's not about misfortune. It's about struggle, which everyone has. I think these Iranian characters get to be seen as witty; as people who have desires; as people who have regrets, resentments, hopes. They're fabulous, they're beautiful, they're funny, and I'm so glad that we get to share this with people because it's never been done like this before."