It’s 2008. In a small classroom in Iran, Marjan is teaching English.
Her group of adult learners each have their own relationship to this new language – for some it means opportunities abroad, for others a way to grow closer to grandchildren. Whatever their motives, these strangers find tensions flaring, connections forming and truths emerging as they hurtle towards their final exam.
From the imperfect conversations you’ll only hear in a language lesson to the humour of getting lost in translation, English follows a lovingly rendered ensemble of characters that will carve out a place in your heart as they learn what it means to express themselves.
Directed by Resident Director Tasnim Hossain (I Wanna Be Yours), and starring Salme Geransar (Mystery Road: Origin) and Osamah Sami (ABC’s Savage River), this is a story of falling in love with your own voice.
What I found interesting about this show was the use of their natural Australian accents to symbolise to the audience that they were speaking their native language and not English and when they were speaking English it was with an Iranian accent and often broken, I loved this concept and the skill shown by the actors switches accents was highly impressive and made for some hilarious moments.
Salme Geransar as the English teacher Marjan showed heartwarming presence as she helped her students with learning the language and also added comic flare when things got lost in translation, a highlight for her character was towards the end of the show when she realises that she has become lost in the world of “English” and almost forgot who she really was and what her own language was and then her fragility becomes visible at the end.
Osamah Sami as Omid added another layer of comedy to the show and the group. I particularly liked that he specified he was learning “American English” so he had to pronounce things differently and this made for a good laugh as the group argued over different words and sentences. It was a gut wrenching moment however, when we found out at the end that he was born in America and was in fact a native speaker and had to be thrown out of the class.
Delaram Ahmadi as Goli was hilarious as well as heartwarming with her betrayal showing the character who struggled with learning English the most while wanting so desperately to speak to her family. The scene where she copied the voicemail message in the class as a particularly poignant moment, the comedic moments were great when a few things were lost in translation.
I loved the character of Roya played by Marjan Mesbahi, she played the comic moments with precision while yet displaying the fragility of a student frustrated with her struggle to learn the language.
Finally, my favourite was Elham played by Maia Abbas. I really enjoyed her over the top performance and found to be the character that drew the most laughs due to her physical comedy. The sarcasm she displayed was the particular highlight and was a hilarious moment particularly when she deliberately broke the “English only” rule!
The cast were complimented by a simple but very effective classroom set (designed by Kat Chan).
Director Tasim Hossain is to be commended for putting all individual actors their chance to shine and telling the story in a way that’s funny and heartwarming at the same time.
