The Primary English Class by Israel Horovitz (1976)

 

TW: Racial Slurs, Xenophobia, Rape Mention, Inappropriate Groping, Elder Abuse, Suicide Mention

 

SYNOPSIS

            An Italian and a Frenchman both believe that each other is the teacher for this adult ESL class, but each only speaks their native language. For those of us that only speak English, a Translator explains some, but not all, of the foreign language lines. The two men are soon joined by a German, an elderly Chinese woman, and a young Japanese woman before their teacher, Ms. Debbie Watsba arrives. There are several running jokes about their names all meaning wastebasket and comes from their old Mesopotamian ancestors, the restaurant downstairs being absolutely terrible, and that they’ve all had a run in with a mugger. It soon becomes clear that Wastba only appears to be prepared to teach the class and has no idea how to actually teach her class where no one speaks the same language and her students literally don’t know even the simplest of English sentences. The trouble truly begins when Wastba drops her contact and goes to rinse it off in the bathroom. She mistakes the Polish janitor for a molester and locks the classroom door to keep everyone safe, however Pong has been given several glasses of water and desperately needs to use the restroom. Neither woman can explain themselves, but Pong successfully escapes and the class is weary of a teacher that would push an old woman. None of the students understand what’s happening and Wastba has no way to explain other than repeating herself in English more and more frantically. She begins to physically punish the students for speaking in their native languages and soon they choose to leave the class fully understanding that doing so means braving what they think is a mugger as well as losing all chances of livelihood in America. The janitor finally gets into the room and explains in Polish that he was banging on the door because when Wastba attacked him in the bathroom, she stole his mop and he needed it to finish his work. Wastba, now alone, is dejected believing her worth to lie in accomplishing the one small task of teaching a simple phrase. The play ends with Pong finally returning from the bathroom.

 

CHARACTERS

Smiednik – Polish Janitor, Stout

Patumiera – Italian, Movie Star Type

LaPoubelle – French, Handsome, Nearly Bald, Diminutive, Wears Tight Clothes

Translator – No Physical Appearance in Show

Mulleimer – German, Thick Eyeglases

Mrs. Pong – Chinese, Elderly, Small, Runs

Yoko Kuzukago – Japanese, Young Woman, Beautiful

Debbie Wastba – White American

 

POSSIBBLE MONOLOGUES

            There aren’t very good examples of monologues that work well on their own. The closest is Wastba’s introduction and her lesson plan, but from personal experience I can tell you that the comedic elements don’t land as well without scene partners. Each of the students that leaves the class give a short monologue about how terrible Wastba is and that they’d rather face death or disgrace than continue to be subject to her cruelty, but they’re all done in native languages with translation and don’t work well outside the context of the play.

 

PERSONAL THOUGHTS

            Honestly, this play was hard to get through. I think it’s an example of how difficult it can be for plays to withstand the test of time, especially one with so many comedic elements, and this one adds the difficulty of language barriers. There are many lines that aren’t translated at all. Theatres attempting the play would need to do a good bit of research to make sure the actors know what their saying or hire bilingual actors, and truly bilingual actors at that. I’m studying German but Mulleimer uses slang and contractions that were a bit tricky to understand after two solid years of studying the language and a trip to Germany. I assume the same is true for the other foreign characters.

            There are some red flags in the play that are a product of the time it was written, like Mrs. Pong and Yoko being called “Oriental,” but there are other slurs that were fully intended as slurs in 1976 like calling Patumiera a wop, both said by Wastba. Then there are things in the play that just don’t land well. Wastba has a bit of a monologue explaining how her sister was molested and the man she went to for help ended up molesting Wastba. It certainly helps to explain why she assumed a janitor in the woman’s restroom had nefarious intentions rather than literally just doing his job, but it’s one of many examples in the play that left me having mixed feelings. A lot of the play feels like a farce, yet there are monologues like this and LaPoubelle’s decree that he’s going to kill himself because of all he’ll lose from not learning English, not once but twice. The play is listed as a drama, but features scenes where Pong is force-fed water and tea after nearly fainting, LaPoubelle and Patumiera exaggeratedly flirt with Yoko and Wastba, Pong and Wastba have a whole showdown where Pong sprints and leaps from desks just to use the bathroom, and Mulleimer spends about 45 minutes blind as a bat and accidentally groping Wastba after she took his glasses to use as an example.

            I’ll include an excerpt from the New York Times’ Feb. 17, 1976 review by Clive Barnes that sort of helps get at my feelings about the play:

It is possibly true that Mr. Horovitz is better at setting a situation than plotting a play. For all its humor, even with its suggestion of an allegory about noncommunication, “The Primary English Class” is more of a dramatic sketch than a drama. It is fairly brief„ and, although Mr. Horovitz maintains the wit and indeed the complete conceit, remarkably well—largely by introducing more and more absurd characters, a method that does have a kind of climactic effect—the play is still somewhat thin in its texture. I was reminded of another sketchlike play by Mr. Horovitz called “Line,” which was nothing but the behavioral patterns of characters standing in line.

Yet the humor in “The Primary English Class” is somehow even more basic than that in the earlier play. It finds its roots in the very human feeling that if you speak your own language very loudly and very slowly a foreigner will in some miraculous way understand. As a result we have this slowtalking Tower of Babel of a play, where everyone is intent in making him or herself understood to everyone else. It really is a gem of an idea.

 

            The play has an air of being unfinished and although it opens an audience up to conversations about immigration and emersion, I find that I’m not 100% sure what the play itself or Isreal Horovitz is trying to say about any of these things. Is this an argument for learning the country’s primary language before immigrating or that Americans need more compassion when welcoming immigrants into our folds? Does it depend on the individual production or is there an intended interpretation of the play?