English on Broadway Tickets

By: Sanaz Toossi
Director: Knud Adams
Producer: Roundabout Theatre Company
Cast list: Tala Ashe (as Elham), Ava Lalezarzadeh (as Goli), Pooya Mohseni (as Roya), Marjan Neshat (as Marjan), Hadi Tabbal (as Omid)
Sets: Marsha Ginsberg
Costumes: Enver Chakartash
Lighting: Reza Behjat
Sound: Sinan Refik Zafar

English is a play set entirely inside a single classroom occupied by four adult students in Iran and their teacher: Elham, Goli, Roya, Marjan, and Omid. They are studying to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language, better known as the TOEFL. They all believe that learning English is what they need to fill something inside them that's missing. But as they undergo listening, speaking, and writing exercises and games to test their proficiency, they realize that English might actually be causing division between them and their mother tongue.

Toossi's work was first, and last, seen at Atlantic Theater Company in 2018, when she premiered a one-act play at the company's MixFest for Middle Eastern playwrights. She was slated to make her professional debut with her other play Wish You Were Here at the 2020 Williamstown Theatre Festival, but the production was canceled amid the pandemic.

Instead, Atlantic and Roundabout's production of English off Broadway was Toossi's first full-length production. And what a debut it was, winning the Pulitzer alongside an Obie Award for Best New American Play.

What to watch for

• Toossi and Adams both make their Broadway debuts with English.
• English received praise before it even premiered! The play received an L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award and was selected for the 2019 Kilroys List, an honor given to new and underproduced plays by non-male writers.
• The TOEFL is used to evaluate non-native speakers who want to study at English-speaking universities. It's one of two major English-language tests in the world; the other is the International English Language Testing System, or IELTS.
• Ever take the SAT or ACT in high school? Then you might have an idea of what taking the TOEFL is like. The preparation is just as intense, and the test is just as long — it takes nearly 4 hours to complete!
• In the same season English premiered, spring 2022, another Toossi play, Wish You Were Here, was also staged for the first time at Playwrights Horizons.