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:

19 May 2004

Thirty-six years on from the premiere of Alan Bennett's first-ever stage play, 40 Years On, that was set in a school, the playwright has gone back there for The History Boys, now premiering at the National. "History repeats itself. Historians repeat each other," goes a quote in the programme; but should it be added, "and playwrights repeat themselves"?

Maybe; but who is complaining when the result is as knowing and wise, intelligent and well-crafted comedy as this? While its minutely observed, autobiographically inspired story of a group of bright grammar school boys preparing for the Oxford and Cambridge entrance exams - a route that Bennett himself took in the 1950s, as the director of this play, Nicholas Hytner, also subsequently did - might seem to be about a narrow constituency, everyone has been to school. This richly funny, deeply thoughtful play about education and history, learning and culture, pitches us all straight back to the c...

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Latest User Review

217.36.96.101) - 26 April 2005:

This was a brilliant production. Script, cast, setting all perfect. Wish I had seen it earlier in its run and hope to see it when it returns at Christmas....

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