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Director
Nicholas
Hytner
Designer
Bob Crowley
Cast
Timms
Owain Arthur
Dakin
Ben Barnes
Mrs
Lintott
Isla Blair
Headmaster
William Chubb
Rudge
Philip Correia
Akthar
Marc Elliott
Hector
Stephen Moore
Scripps
Thomas Morrison
Crowther
Akemnji Ndifornyen
Lockwood
David Poynor
Posner
Steven Webb
Irwin
Orlando Wells
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Wyndham's Theatre
11 Jan - 14 April 2007
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The boys are back in town.
The
History Boys,
that is. Nicholas Hytner's
triumphant National Theatre
production is currently appearing
in London's glittering West
End with a box-fresh new cast.
As the superlatives flapping
in the wind outside Wyndham's
Theatre proudly proclaim,
this is officially a Great
Play. It's won everything.
Even in America. But despite
all its plaudits it has been
criticized for lacking depth
and direction. So is The
History Boys
a) a brilliant treatise on
education, or b) a witty exercise
in nostalgia? - discuss.
It's Thatcher's 80's. We're
in a Sheffield grammar school.
And it's 'seventh term' -
a time devoted to planning
and cramming for the Oxbridge
entrance exams - trials now
lost to history. Our boys
are the gifted few, they've
got their A-Level results
and they're back at school
after their summer hols, seeking
an eighteen year olds' academic
Holy Grail. Their studies
are with an inspiring teacher
known to the boys by his nickname
- Hector (Stephen Moore).
Hector is a believer in education
for life, not for the vulgar
and temporary purpose of exams.
He is that wistful archetype
that resurfaces intermittently
in fiction - he's there in
Goodbye
Mr. Chips
and in Dead
Poets Society.
But Alan Bennett's Hector
is a more liberal educator
than his filmic antecedents.
His interest in his young
charges strays into the sexual.
Unaware of Hector's intimate
relations with his pupils,
our grammar school's one-dimensional
headmaster is not content
with his methods of teaching
- French role-play and poetry
just won't do. He wants an
exam coach, a mentor who can
deliver Oxbridge entrance.
Enter Irwin (Orlando Wells).
Irwin is a different cut of
inspirational teacher - slick
where Hector is corduroy,
young where he is old. And
he's been to Jesus, or is
it Corpus? Irwin isn't all
he appears to be, but he shakes
up the boys just as much as
Hector's poetry does.
And the boys themselves? Even
when they aren't good-looking,
they are glamorous to a man.
They have self-confidence,
wit, panache and a 1940's
musical repertoire that is
a wonder to behold.
The production displays a
joie de vivre that is infectious.
Atmosphere is effortlessly
evoked with a nifty schoolroom
set, a large projection-screen
and a highly enjoyable 80's
soundtrack, featuring Madness'
Baggy Trousers.
The boys' performances fire
straight and hit their marks.
Steven Webb is brilliant as
Posner, the homosexual Jew.
In a performance filled with
pathos he steers clear of
being mawkish, transmitting
a sense that Posner will be
too far out all his life,
and not waving but drowning.
Ben Barnes is suitably cock-sure
and charming as Dakin, but
still wet-behind-the-ears
enough to be likable.
The teachers are less convincing.
Stephen Moore is sympathetic
as Hector, but Orlando Wells
is miscast as Irwin. He doesn't
measure up to the script's
description of him as 'reckless,
impulsive... bold'. And he
lacks the charisma necessary
for us to believe that a character
as cool as Dakin would seek
out his approval and his lust.
So what more does The
History Boys
offer than some engaging if
stereotyped characters, encased
in a beautifully polished
comic surface? It is not,
as some may aver, about education,
education, education. It has
no more to offer on that subject
than Dead
Poets Society
does (a narrative that likewise
deals with an elite group
of boys studying arts and
humanities in a past decade).
While it does make the true
if romantic point that learning
should be about more than
just jumping hurdles, it doesn't
conclusively sneer at the
hurdles. It is ambiguous on
the topic of Oxbridge. Can
going there - or even lying
about going there - improve
your lot in life? Should Oxbridge
be the Grail? There is no
definitive answer. And bizarrely
for Bennett there is no grappling
with issues of class.
Neither is The
History Boys
an 80's period pastiche -
there are too many anachronisms
in the script for that. And
it's not even about 'History'
per se. It has nothing particularly
fresh to add on the idea that
the past is warped by victors
and by the mores of the present.
But it has a lot to say about
that peculiar brand of personal
history, memory. Like Dead
Poets Society,
The
History Boys
works at its best and at its
deepest when it looks at how
we construct who we are. Irwin
reinvents his own history,
Hector dresses up his perversion
in Wildean aesthetics and
the boys learn the subtle
lies of Oxbridge entrance.
Added to which, none of the
characters we see truly exist
in this 80's moment on the
stage - they are all looking
back at themselves. They intermittently
turn to the audience and speak
to us about how it was back
then. But memory is an imperfect
prism. The vision of an 80's
school that Alan Bennett gives
us is not really how it was.
The
History Boys
is an old man's testament
to youth. As Hector freezes
the boys in a photograph he
comments how they are 'magnificently
unprepared for the long littleness
of life'. Though it runs shy
of the grander problems of
history, education and class
The
History Boys
finds a sad beauty in its
glance at the small failures
of life and the dissemblance
of hope and memory.
Iona Firouzabadi |
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