Worlds apart: Setareh Naghoni and Nicole Chamoun in English. Photo: Richard Farland
Who are we when we speak a language that isn’t our own? That is one question that Iranian American playwright Sanaz Toossi’s English subtly asks of its audiences. In Sydney, one of the most multi-lingual cities of the world, it is especially pertinent. Do those speaking a different language from their mother tongue become different? Feel different? Are they (we) pretending to ourselves – or others? Is mastering a second language more than a linguistic feat?
English raises these questions and more, with humour and integrity.
The play is set in 2008 in Karaj, Iran. The set shows us a classroom, presided over by Marjan (Nicole Chamoun), who has recently returned to Iran after a time working in Manchester, England. Over the course of six weeks, her four adult pupils learn English and about each other and themselves. Each has their own reason for wanting to master English.
There is Roya (Neveen Hanna). For her, it is all about maintaining family and cultural bonds. Her son has migrated to Canada, where his child will learn only English. Roya, left behind in Iran, is desperate to reconnect with her son and get to know the granddaughter who does not speak her language
Elham (Setareh Naghoni) wants to be a doctor, but she must pass the dreaded TOEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) exam if she is to study in Melbourne. Her frustrations and anger are always at surface level as she struggles to reconcile her proven academic intelligence with a weaker ability to master English.
Omid (Pedram Biazar) is, in terms of English language fluency, Marjan’s star pupil. He speaks his English with an American accent, but he wants a Green Card and achieving that, being able to live and work in a Western country, is no easy thing for a young male with Middle Eastern heritage. Not in 2008, and not now.
For Goli (Minerva Khodabande), it is about learning English – something she has always wanted to do. Which doesn’t necessarily make it easy, but her approach is relaxed and – for the audience at least – playful.
Marjan’s lived experience as a foreigner living overseas gives her empathy with her pupils as well as insights. Why has she returned to Iran? It’s a question that hangs over the play.
After some gently comic moments, many of which will be familiar to anyone who has tried to learn a second language – that straining to hear the audio exercises and discern more than two words; the terrible pronunciation and accidental use of quite the wrong word or term; and the language teacher’s attempts to smooth all this over and, at the same time, encourage. But as the weeks progress, the personalities of all five, their fears and aspirations, begin to assert themselves.
Questions of cultural identity and personal identity emerge. The play is so interesting on many levels and provokes some questions that I, for one, had not thought of before. What may seem a simple thing – the anglicization of a name, for example – can be so loaded. Marjan had been Mary in Manchester. Did that matter? Such a thought made Elham furious, as if her identity were being ripped from her – and perhaps it was.
What sacrifices should a person be prepared to make to live in another land, and are they giving up a part of themselves when they attempt to parrot a strange tongue? Can they be completely themselves?
And if you speak a different language in that new country, how tiring it is to understand and make yourself understood 24/7, 365 days of the year. (I did it for a mere two weeks once, and was exhausted at the end of that time.)
Then there is dual citizenship. A huge privilege, certainly – but how easy is it to belong to two different countries? All of this and more comes through with humour and empathy in English. The five actors, directed by Craig Baldwin for Outhouse Theatre, are all fabulous; it is easy to forget that Omid, Roya, Elham, Marjan and Goli are performing here, their stories and their characters seem so real.
Interesting and thought-provoking, English won a Pultizer prize for Drama in 2023. It runs for 100 minutes without an interval. And as Outhouse’s Jeremy Waters says, “It is about people, not politics.” Recommended.
At the Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre until 2 May
Tickets: $41-$59
https://www.seymourcentre.com/event/english/
