The Theater: Filling the Vacuum

THE PRIMARY ENGLISH CLASS

by ISRAEL HOROVITZ

The situation is pure H-Y-M-A-N KAPLAN, but its development is impure MASH. It is the first night of a course designed to give recent immigrants a nodding acquaintance with their new language. Out of the melting pot and into an empty classroom drip a Frenchman, an Italian, a German and two Oriental women, none of whom has any language in common with the others. Nor, it turns out, does their late-arriving teacher, Debbie Wastba (Diane Keaton), have anything but pantomime and a feverish determination to fall back...

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