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:

8 February 2010

The History Boys already has the feel of a classic. It’s so new, and yet seems so well-thumbed. And as West Yorkshire Playhouse’s collaborative effort with Theatre Royal Bath, arrives relatively hot on the heels of the National Theatre's inaugural History Boys, comparisons are inevitable.

Questioning whether Kyle Redmond-Jones will cut as dashing a figure as Dominic Cooper, or how the part of Hector will be handled by Gerard Murphy after Richard Griffith’s epic performance, would be rather cheap though. In this new presentation of Alan Bennett’s tale of eight Yorkshire Grammar school sixth-formers, chasing the slim possibility of Oxbridge places with the aid of their teachers, it’s only fair to the obvious efforts of cast and crew that the slate be wiped – marginally – clean.

Murphy cuts a sympathetic figure, as can be expected, with touching eccentricity; the many quivering shakes of his jowls as he professes ...

Read more of the review

Latest User Review

No reviews yet

Click here to add your review