The History Boys

Synopsis

A comic drama about adolescent schoolboys. A group of bright, funny sixth-form boys in pursuit of sex, sport and a place at university. A maverick English teacher at odds with the young and shrewd supply teacher. A headmaster obsessed with results, and a history teacher who thinks he's a fool.

Our Review:

18 May 2010

There's no doubting the capacity of this Alan Bennett play to move, provoke and challenge assumptions about all sorts of things – education, the role of the teacher, the rampant arrogance of teenage boys and even nascent homosexuality.

I’m not sure it quite deserves the status of masterpiece, as is so often hung on it, but it’s certainly got humour, pathos and plenty to think about.

In this co-production between Bath Theatre Royal and the West Yorkshire Playhouse, currently touring the country, the tale of eight post-A level students being prepared for Oxbridge entrance exams by two very different teachers is played out efficiently and effectively, with laughs and tears in all the right places.

At the heart of it is the maverick teacher Hector, bluffly portrayed by Gerard Murphy as a well-meaning mother hen who takes his affection for his pupils just that bit too far. Opposite him, in so many ways, is new teacher Irwin (Ben Lambert), drafted in by the headmaster to coach ...

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Latest User Review

Rehana Malik - 23 May 2010:

I agree with everything Duncan has said above. Suffice to say it was fantastic, the best play I've ever seen also. ...

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