The Trail & District Arts Council presents the timely, quietly powerful, and often funny play “English”, on Thursday, October 22 at 7:30 pm at The Bailey Theatre as part of the Performing Arts Trail series.
This production of the Pulitzer Prize winning drama by Santosh Toossi, is infused with warmth, humour, and insight, as it explores themes of belonging, cultural displacement, and the sacrifices made in pursuit of a new life.
As a teacher writes the words “English Only” on the whiteboard we meet four Iranian students studying English near Tehran. Roya, Goli, Elham and Omid all have varying reasons for wanting to live abroad, from being accepted into an Australian medical school to wanting to connect with their expat son and grandchild.
All the awkwardness of a foreign language classroom is covered. Traditional names are made into digestible English versions, and oral exercises trip people up, as they play games to reinforce English vocabulary words and try to replicate the all-too-proper English audio tapes.
But, as they study for the standardized test that will measure their English proficiency, we see how language shapes who they are and how they navigate the world, as they are forced to shed a layer of themselves for the sake of belonging.
As Director Amir N. Hosseini says in his director’s notes for the show: “It’s a feeling I know in my bones, the hope that a new language might unlock a new world, and the quiet, persistent fear that a piece of your soul might slip away in the translation. The moment I read English, I felt seen. It gave a voice to that deeply personal terrain I’ve navigated for years.”
The 2023 Pulitzer prize winner seems like a comedy about studying a foreign language, but eventually the laughter from the audience fades as we realize that as the students learn English they are at the same time grieving leaving behind Iran, their friends and families.
Event Details
The Trail & District Arts Council presents the timely, quietly powerful, and often funny play “English”, on Thursday, October 22 at 7:30 pm at The Bailey Theatre as part of the Performing Arts Trail series.
This production of the Pulitzer Prize winning drama by Santosh Toossi, is infused with warmth, humour, and insight, as it explores themes of belonging, cultural displacement, and the sacrifices made in pursuit of a new life.
As a teacher writes the words “English Only” on the whiteboard we meet four Iranian students studying English near Tehran. Roya, Goli, Elham and Omid all have varying reasons for wanting to live abroad, from being accepted into an Australian medical school to wanting to connect with their expat son and grandchild.
All the awkwardness of a foreign language classroom is covered. Traditional names are made into digestible English versions, and oral exercises trip people up, as they play games to reinforce English vocabulary words and try to replicate the all-too-proper English audio tapes.
But, as they study for the standardized test that will measure their English proficiency, we see how language shapes who they are and how they navigate the world, as they are forced to shed a layer of themselves for the sake of belonging.
As Director Amir N. Hosseini says in his director’s notes for the show: “It’s a feeling I know in my bones, the hope that a new language might unlock a new world, and the quiet, persistent fear that a piece of your soul might slip away in the translation. The moment I read English, I felt seen. It gave a voice to that deeply personal terrain I’ve navigated for years.”
The 2023 Pulitzer prize winner seems like a comedy about studying a foreign language, but eventually the laughter from the audience fades as we realize that as the students learn English they are at the same time grieving leaving behind Iran, their friends and families.