This isn’t a sponsored post.
BrumHour saw English at the invite of The RSC.
By Dave Massey twitter.com/BrumHour
This production contains strong language.
Review: English at The RSC, The Other Place
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Top of the class
Directed by Diyan Zora and written by Sanaz Toossi
Marjan (Nadia Albina) is teaching English to a small class of students in Iran, Elham (Serena Manteghi) wants to transfer her science background to Australia, Roya (Lanna Joffrey) wants to move to Canada to be close to her son and his young family, Omid (Nojan Khazai) who is looking to go to the USA and Goli (Sara Hazemi) who on the surface seems pretty happy just learning.
Over 90 minutes (without interval) we see snapshots of this English class TOEFL over six weeks, learning more about these characters and their backgrounds and why English is something they value when they are all pretty fluent in Farsi. The story also explores the tone of English and its complexities compared to other languages. The story varies from serious to comedic and back again.
When the characters are speaking in Farsi, the actors themselves are speaking in well-spoken English, and when they speak English they use Iranian accents. I’ve been learning German for the past two months and I don’t think I’m very good at all. Yet.. Apart from to say “Excuse Me” and “I’m Sorry” I wouldn’t be confident yet in speaking to a German person, so I felt an affinity with these characters.
The set is a three-walled classroom with fans hanging from the ceiling, in the corner is a CD player, a DVD player and a small TV. There’s a handful of chairs and this really allows us to focus on each character. Nadia Albina is excellent as Marjan as we explore her emotional turmoil but ultimately it’s Serena Manteghi‘s complex portrayal of Elham which lingers the most in my mind.
A charming and witty production English is top of the class, and is at The RSC’s The Other Place until 1st June 2024. Book tickets here: rsc.org.uk/english.
