Playwright Sanaz Toossi’s English, which won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize, is very recent and very relevant. This production by Outhouse Theatre was programmed before the most recent war in Iran began. But its setting of a language class in Karaj in 2008 inevitably takes on a new dimension under current circumstances.

Outhouse Theatre Co’s English. Photo © Richard Farland

Marjan, the teacher and central role, has a strict requirement that only English be spoken in the classroom. The four students are hoping to pass the Test of English as a Foreign Language, primarily to access visas and migration pathways.

Elham wants to get into research at RMIT; Roya wants to be able to speak with her grandchild when she emigrates to Canada; Omid thinks the USA might hold more opportunity for him; and teenager Goli simply wants options.

The ambivalent feelings each of them harbour towards the English language, and all that it represents, are capably held and expressed by a strong cast. Nicole Chamoun as Marjan is a performance within a performance: the teacher who occasionally lets a professional demeanour slip and reveals...