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:

31 March 2012

The History Boys is one of Alan Bennett’s funniest and most thought-provoking plays. The boys are a class of sixth-formers studying history and attempting to get into Oxbridge. Their headmaster brings in a new, young, Oxbridge-educated teacher in an attempt to improve their chances; however, the new master’s approach to history, and indeed to education, is as a means to an end, to stand out amongst other scholarship candidates.

He soon comes into conflict with their English teacher, Hector, who cares rather more about literature as a preparation for life than as an examination subject. However, Hector’s habit of groping his pupils whilst giving them a lift on his motorbike leads to him being sacked; he crashes his bike whilst giving the new history teacher a lift home, and is killed.

As you might expect from Bennett, the dialogue is impeccably (and impossibly) witty, but alongside the play’s epigramma...

Read more of the review

Latest User Review

No reviews yet

Click here to add your review