“English” stars Pooya Mohseni, Ava Lalezarzadeh, Tala Ashe and Marjan Neshat. (photo by Joan Marcus)

Straight off a critically acclaimed Broadway run, the Pulitzer Prize winning “English” by Sanaz Toossi, directed by Knud Adams, in the Atlantic Theater Company & Roundabout Theatre Company production, has a strictly limited engagement of 24 performances from April 4-26 at the Bram Goldsmith Theater at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.

“English” won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was nominated for five 2025 Tony Awards including Best Play, direction by Adams and scenic design by Marsha Ginsberg. American Theatre magazine cited “English” as the 20th of “50 Plays of the New Millenium that Pushed Theatre Forward.”

Toossi’s dramatic comedy about an Iranian ESL class studying for the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) debuted at Roundabout on Broadway in 2025, after its off-Broadway premiere at the Atlantic Theater in 2022.

The quietly powerful play is about four Iranian adults preparing for an English language exam in a storefront school near Tehran, where family separations and travel restrictions drive them to learn a new language that may alter their identities, and represent a new life.

Two words set in motion Toossi’s intricate and profound New York debut: “English Only.” This is the mantra that rules one classroom in Iran, where four adult students are preparing for the TOEFL test. Chasing fluency through a maze of word games, listening exercises and show-and-tell sessions, they hope that one day, English will make them whole – but it might be splitting each of them in half.

“English gives voice to anyone navigating identity, language and belonging across cultures locally and globally,” said Daphna Nazarian, chair of the board of directors of The Wallis. “It celebrates individual expression, reveals our intimate stories and reminds us that beneath our differences, our shared values connect us. It is the age old story of immigration and assimilation, with a longing for the past while yearning for the possibilities of a brighter future. At this time, it also echoes the courage of the Iranian people and all who continue to fight for personal rights and freedom of expression.”

For information and tickets, visit thewallis.org.

The Wallis Anneberg Center for the Performing Arts is located at 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd.