Learning a language as an adult is a battle. Your voice feels alien; the words can’t quite find their shape. Sanaz Toossi’s 2023 Pulitzer prizewinning drama, having its European premiere presented by the RSC, articulates this struggle in meticulous detail. It’s set in a 2008 classroom in Karaj, Iran, at a time of travel restrictions and generational migration, where a group of students arrive for a triweekly preparation lesson for the English as a foreign language test.
Each of the four students has a different motive. Elham (Serena Manteghi) has won a provisional place at medical school in Australia. Roya (Lanna Joffrey) wants to be able to communicate effortlessly with her granddaughter, who was born and lives in Canada. Eighteen-year-old Goli (Sara Hazemi) has wanted
