It is a refreshing subject to approach a class of Iranians in preparation for a test in English as a Foreign Language and to explore their motivation to learn English.  There is some cracking good comedy in Iranian-American Sanaz Toossi’s Pulitzer Prize winning play but underneath there is also sadness. 

The teacher Marjan (Nadia Albina) has lived in Manchester for ten years and adores the language English but has chosen to return to Iran.  Persian is known as Farsi in Iran and all the class speak Farsi.  For our benefit, when they are speaking English they are mostly hesitant and accented but when they switch to Farsi we hear their perfect English.  I remember this being done years ago but I can’t remember which play. Marjan’s rule is that only English should be spoken in class and eventually she sets up a penalty system for contraventions. 

Elham (Serena Manteghi) is a doctor who needs a 94 in English to study a medical specialism, gastroenterology  in Australia.  She has failed the test many times and hates having to learn English.  Instead she celebrates her own language, customs and music.  When they are carrying out a vocabulary exercise, they throw a football and the person catching it has to provide an English word in the given category before he can throw the ball to someone else.  Omid (Nojan Khazai) tends to narrowly beat Elham every time and she is very competitive.