By John Lyle Belden

In the United States, we take for granted speaking one of the most confoundingly complex languages on Earth. Still, for various reasons millions of people around the world insist on learning it.

“English,” a light-hearted drama on the serious pursuit of another language, was an MFA thesis project for Sanaz Toossi, the American daughter of Iranian immigrants. Since the play won a Pulitzer Prize in 2023, we presume she was awarded her degree. The Indiana Repertory Theatre now presents the local premiere on the intimate Janet Allen Stage, directed by Persian American educator Azar Kazemi with a mostly Iranian-American cast.

The setting is a classroom in a city near Teheran in 2008. Marjan (Neagheen Homifar), a teacher who had spent some years in the U.K., is instructing an “advanced learners” course to prepare for the Test of English as a Foreign Language, or TOEFL, a necessity for finding work and other opportunities in English-speaking countries.

Elham (Natasha Behnam) has an adversarial relationship with English, having failed the TOEFL before, but needs it to pursue medical studies in Australia. Roya (Leyla Modirzadeh) wants to better communicate with her grandchildren in Canada. Omid (Revon Yousif) has cousins in the States. Goli (Emelia Maryam Mosay) is just 18 and looking to expand her horizons.

“English Only,” Marjan writes on the dry-erase board. This is not only typical of an immersive language class, but also a hint at the way dialogue is portrayed in the play. When we hear accents and stilted speech, it is these characters’ speaking in classroom English. When they converse more freely (in English), it is what we hear translated from Farsi (modern Persian, the language spoken in Iran).

There is a brief exchange in actual Farsi late in the play, helping us experience not just the isolating effect of a very different tongue, but also to note its flowing poetic nature. The characters treasure it for this, while Goli notes that English presents more function than flavor, like rice in a meal.

While for audiences, relating to current and past international events is unavoidable, such controversies are outside the scope of the play. The adversary for these students is not the people of other lands, but their language which has overtaken global communication. They struggle with pronunciations and wrestle with idioms. Not all of these pupils will finish the course. In this way, the themes of this drama become more relatable – especially the feeling of abandoning or even betraying their culture in learning to converse and even think as those outside their world do.

Homaifar as Marjan keeps the classes upbeat, often fun, with classroom games and even the use of American and British films to learn linguistic quirks. Her patient encouragement reminds us of favorite educators from our youth. Still, moments of uncertainty about her work creep in.

Benham and Modirzadeh each portray bitter pessimism sharpened by cultural pride. Mosay  is eager and open. Yousif’s Omid seems more fluent than he lets on, as his motives grow suspect.

A simple classroom delivers numerous lessons for all of us in “English,” running through April 4 upstairs in the IRT, 140 W. Washington St. in the heart of downtown Indianapolis. See irtlive.com for tickets and information.