I can empathize. As someone who takes four classes a week in four different foreign languages — it had been my way of getting through the pandemic — the subject of Sanaz Toossi’s new play not only struck a nerve, it hit my pocket book. Aptly titled “English,” Toossi’s one-act play opened Thursday at Roundabout’s Todd Haimes Theatre after a run in 2022 at Off Broadway’s Atlantic Theater Company. In between those two productions, Toosi’s play won the Pulitzer Prize. It is one of the slightest works ever to receive that award.
As with some of the students in Toossi’s classroom drama, I have no talent for learning foreign languages despite all the courses taken, all the money spent.