Unlike casual language learners — say, in a high school French class, or on Duolingo — for the characters in Sanaz Toossi’s Pulitzer-winning “English,” language acquisition feels imperative. Set in Karaj, Iran in 2008, the play centers on a group of four adults taking a class to pass the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) exam.
Each has their own reasons for needing a good score: Elham (Tala Ashe) requires it to go to med school in Australia; Omid (Hadi Tabbal) to get a green card; Roya (Pooya Mohseni) to appease the demands of her son in Canada, who is raising his daughter in English; and Goli
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