Drama News

In the spotlight this week:

English
The Lion King
Girl Asleep

ENGLISH

Last week the Drama Department ran an excursion to see a production of ENGLISH by Sanaz Toossi.

The play explores themes of language, identity, and cultural assimilation, set in an English classroom in Karaj, Iran, in 2008. The play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Twenty students were engaged and moved by the play. I’m delighted to feature a report by Georgie Porter and Perri Lawrence in Year 10, who attended the production.

On 29 April, a group of students from Years 9-12 went to the Seymour Centre to watch the play ENGLISH written by Sanaz Toossi. ENGLISH is set in Iran 2008, in a classroom in Karaj, where four adult students seek to learn the English language, while navigating their own personal complexities. The play explores the emotional cost of learning a new language, convolutions of identity, displacement and the immigrant experience. Each character sees something in the English language, a new meaning, and a purpose, whether it be to connect with family, explore the world, or escape the metaphorical ‘entrapment’ of not being able to speak. With a cast of five and a small classroom as the only set, the play captured the beauty of human connection, heritage and culture.

The drama excursion was the highlight of the week. The play was absolutely hilarious but also deeply moving, with a lovely balance between the two, which made it appropriate for people of all ages. All the characters were different; one being a bubbly 18 year old girl, another a grandmother hoping to speak to her grand-daughter in English, one that was coming back to take the test for the sixth time, with hopes to travel the world, and one with a past that unfolds through the story.

The play was so exciting and amusing, and it was overall such an entertaining experience, we would highly recommend for people to go see it the next time it is on at the Seymour Centre!

Georgie Porter and Perri Lawrence
Year 10