Reflections on the play “English” at the Segal Theatre

I’ve always loved theatre. I was a theatre goer as a teenager, full of angst in the communist Poland, later in the chic and historic West End of London, and then in Montreal, Quebec. I loved it all, be it in English or French even when my French was close to nil. I relied on the hyperbolic gestures and expression, on the dramatic scene shifting, on the sounds and lighting as markers of the sequence of mood, time and location of the plot. And I suppose I just made up the rest.

Last week I joined my students and colleagues in a theatre outing. We saw “English”, a play by Sanaz Toossi, about four Iranians and their language teacher in the context of an ESL course. Our post-viewing conversation brought back the memories of my piecing together of the story played out on the stage when my language skill did not suffice. What struck me was the students’ description of their difficulties to follow the plot and yet, how insightful and multilayered their interpretations of the characters’ stories were, their aspirations and complex relationship to English – the language of promise, of status, of opportunities, a must.

The conversation revealed that, despite the highly egregious role of the English language as a vehicle of linguistic neo-imperialism, in the consciousness of its speakers, native and non-native, this global lingua franca also has the power to unite and uncover the ‘selves’ that lay dormant. Paradoxically, it has offered a channel of accessing ancient Chinese wisdom; it added a new layer to one’s personality; it became means of assertion and confidence; it nurtured the self to grow in size and strength. And, as I witnessed in our conversation, it connected us to the Iranian characters of “English” through the visceral understanding of a second language speaker experience.