LOST IN TRANSLATION: FIRST DAY REHEARSAL WITH CAST MEMBERS.
09/07/2023 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM
Cost: $40+
Disclaimer: All prices are current as of the posting date and are subject to change.
Please check the venue or ticket sales site for the current pricing.
CL RECOMMENDS
CRITIC’S PICK: Four adults in an Iranian classroom are required to speak only English while preparing to pass a foreign language exam in order to emigrate. Passing the test could open up myriad opportunities for the students — a green card, medical school admission, or family reunification. Awkward lessons involving word games and mistranslations ensue. Written by Sanaz Toosi, the 2023 Pulitzer Prize drama winner is described as both a comedy of miscommunication and a look at the ways speaking a new language can expand your world while limiting your identity. “(It’s) a beautiful invitation to its audience to see belonging and the subject of identity in a different perspective,” says Shadi Ghaheri, who co-directed the production. “To melt in a world where a group of people are trying to find another life through a language that offers them more than their own — or at least that is the promise. It must be nice to safely and simply belong where you are born to live. Not all human beings around the world have this privilege.” The all-Iranian cast features Auveen Dezgaran as Goli; Lilly Heidari as Jennifer; Ash Kahn (The Chosen) as Omid, Adir Lev Mann as Coach and Nader; Pooya Mohseni (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Madam Secretary) as Marjan, Sade Namei (Signature Theater’s Emotional Creature) as Elham; and Sayé Yabandeh (The Young & The Restless, DGA Theater’s The M Word) as Roya. — Kevin C. Madigan
From the venue:
“English Only” is the mantra that rules one Iranian classroom where four adults are learning English in preparation for the TOEFL — the Test of English as a Foreign Language. Passing the test might be the key to better opportunities — a green card, medical school admission, or family reunification.
Playing out in awkward lessons of word games and mistranslations, English is both a comedy of miscommunication and a look at the ways speaking a new language can expand your world and limit your identity. A hit in its 2021 New York premiere, English was described as, “a rich new play, both contemplative and comic” by The New York Times and was awarded the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. New York Theatre Guide called it, “a buoyant comedy and probing exploration of what it means to speak and feel understood.”
CL RECOMMENDS