‘English’ Probes Motivations and Problems of ESL Students

By Sandi Masori 

SAN DIEGO — As native English speakers, we often take for granted how difficult learning the language can be.  Unlike other languages whose rules stay pretty consistent, our rules are almost defined by their exceptions.  We rarely think about the effort that immigrants and tourists alike must put into learning our tongue.

This challenge is on full display in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play English which is currently at The Old Globe in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theater (that’s the theater-in-the-round.)

Set in Iran in 2008, the play follows a teacher and her students in a small school where the students are preparing for the TOEFL exam (test of English as a foreign language).  As the play progresses we learn the hopes, dreams and fears of each character as they share why they are studying English, and they try to find their voice.

I always appreciate the difficulty of staging shows for theater-in-the-round.  The set must be minimal so as not to obstruct any views, and the blocking must be done in such a way that the audience can see something no matter where they’re sitting.  Director Arya Shahi and set designer Sadra Tehrani did a great job with this. The minimal set had a teacher’s desk, and four student desks (the kind with the chair attached), which were moved around the stage. There was also a small section of tiles set up as a raised platform, which may have been meant to be outside, or a patio area or something, but I wasn’t sure what the purpose was.

The costumes were simple street clothes that would have been worn in the time- jeans or pants covered by long shirts or jackets for the women, along with the requisite head scarf. There were many gorgeous scarves on display throughout the numerous costume changes designed to show the passage of time.  Scarf aficionados may well feel a bit of envy as one gorgeous head covering after another made its way to the stage.

I really liked the way that the actors used a very fast, colloquial American-English speech pattern to show when they were speaking to each other in “Farsi” vs a more accented and stilted English to show when they were speaking to each other in “English.” The timeline was set with some pop culture references, like mentioning someone voting for Bush, or calling someone “Borat.”

Five Equity actors comprise the cast, so it was a very well-done show, as one would expect with that caliber of talent. There were some standouts though, Ari Derambaksh stood out in her role as the young Goli, and Tara Grammy was notable in her role as Elham. A quick Google search showed me that none of the actors are Jewish. I found it interesting that Pooya Mohseni, who played the teacher Marjan, is trans. It doesn’t make a difference to the performance of course, but it did make me think how hard it must have been for her growing up in fundamentalist Iran.

The show is funny, and the audience giggled along as we watched the characters struggle with their English.  As a former teacher of ESL, and also as a self-taught Hebrew speaker, I could really appreciate the challenge and frustrations they were experiencing.  Many of the characters expressed how they felt small and inconsequential when they spoke in English as opposed to the mastery of expression they have in Farsi.  I found this especially interesting, as for me, I always feel way more adorable in other languages than I do in English, perhaps because my language skills don’t allow me to be all that disagreeable.  But I digress, back to the show, besides being a window into what it was like for these diverse characters living in Bush-era Iran, it also encourages empathy for those who come to us from a foreign land and try to learn our language.  I hope that it will help people be just a little more patient when talking to someone for whom English is a second language.

The show has been extended and will run through February 25, so there’s plenty of time to get your tickets.

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Sandi Masori is a food and theater reviewer for San Diego Jewish World.  When she’s not covering food or theater, she helps authors self-publish, hangs out with her kids, and searches for the best sushi in town.