“English” playing at the Todd Haimes Theatre on W 42nd Street is mediocre at best. Presented by Roundabout Theatre Company, the play by Sanaz Toossi focuses on an English language class being taught in Karaj, Iran in 2008. Marjan, a teacher, has four students, Elham, Omid, Goli and Roya, who each have their reasons for wanting to learn the language. For one hour and 40 minutes, the audience watches as Marjan attempts to help her students master speaking in English and get more comfortable with expressing themselves with this new language. As each character’s reason for learning English is revealed, the audience is privy to the different conflicts that each character is dealing with in their lives. However, some storylines are simply left hanging, and there are questions raised in the play that are not satisfyingly answered.
The cast of five actors does a decent job and includes Tala Ashe as Elham; Hadi Tabbal as Omid; Ava Lalezarzadeh as Goli; Marjan Neshat as Marjan and Pooya Mohseni as Roya. The work is directed by Knud Adams. But, again, experiencing theater should make one feel enriched in some way. This production does not do that.