Review: THE HISTORY BOYS, Theatre Royal Bath - Tour
Photo credit: Marc Brenner
The History Boys is a modern classic and Theatre Royal Bath celebrates its 25th anniversary since the National Theatre production launched the careers of James Cordon and Dominic Cooper. It plays the gorgeous Georgian main house until 31 August before touring across the UK, from Truro in West to Cambridge in the East, and Richmond in London to Aberdeen in Scottland. It is surely one of the must see shows of this Autumn.
Set firmly in the 80s with a soundtrack to match, including such wonderful songs to set the mood as ‘Tainted Love’ (1981 hit for Soft Cell), ‘West End Girls’ (1983 hit for the Pet Shop Boys), and ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’ (Tears for Fears’ 1985 hit) as well as a host of other delightful musical elements, it is an extraordinary reminder of Alan Bennett’s glorious writing packed with wit, cutting insight and full of literary allusions. The tale follows eight teenage boys from their A level results day at Cutlers Grammar School in Sheffield as they prepare for the Oxbridge entrance exam under the guidance of teachers Hector and Irwin. It is an exploration of the British Education system and questions whether the schooling should be about guiding them to pass exams (and achieving a higher position in a school’s league table) or about preparing them to be functioning, thinking human beings in their lives.
Irwin (played with a steely calmness by Bill Milner) is hired by the results obsessed Headmaster (Milo Twomey) to get as many of the eight into the elite Oxford and Cambridge colleges as possible and argues that to get in, they must stand out and be different in their approach to answering questions. He calls for them to go in the back door and be perverse in writing their answers. Hector (a delightfully nuanced performance by Simon Rouse) takes a more eccentric approach in his General Studies classes arguing that it is a waste of time, a verbal fig leaf, and full of useless knowledge. He says exams are the enemy of education. Mrs Lintott (Gillian Bevan) is the moral voice of reason on the teaching staff, although she does finally burst into life in her feminist critique of male dominated history.
During the course of the play, Bennett demonstrates that it is a world he knows well as a former academic and fills it with references to the poets WH Auden, AE Houseman, Thomas Hardy and Rupert Brooke and their works, the plays of William Shakespeare, philosopher Wittgenstein, and reenacts scenes from the films, Brief Encounter (1945) and Now Voyager (1942). These references could have made the play inaccessible and elitist but in Bennett’s use and the hands of the talented young men who play the students, he makes them relevant, funny and moving.
Dakin is the sexually provocative boy full of confidence and bravado (a wonderful professional debut for Archie Christoph-Allen) as he reports on his seduction of the school secretary Fiona as a military campaign. Scripps is the religiously devout and strait-laced boy (played by Yazdan Qafouri) who also accompanies the singing on the piano. Timms is the class clown (hilariously played by Teddy Hinde) play acting the role of Claudine in a French maison de passe in a brilliant farcical ensemble scene before the arrival of the Headmaster. Rudge (played by Ned Costello) is the ordinary lad (getting ABB in his results compared to straight As for rest) and is dismissed by the Headmaster as unlikely to succeed. Posner is the odd one out who leads most of the singing (a charming performance from Lewis Cornay) with beautiful poignant renditions of ‘Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered’, ‘Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye’ and ‘Bye Bye Blackbird’, which flow out of the narrative. The other three boys are Crowther (Tashinga Bepete), Lockwood (Curtis Kemlo) and Aktar (Manesh Parmer) who add their own moments to each cleverly constructed scene and support the group in beautifully choreographed fluid scenes changes.
Director Sean Linnen and movement director Chi-San Howard get the pace right throughout, emphasise the comedy, draw out the poignancy and sadness, and perfectly judge the tone. At times, you can almost hear Alan Bennett’s own voice in the lines with grooming undertones and withering putdowns calling for history not histrionics. But it is the wittiness of the writing and comedy that shines through with the biggest laugh for the line “History…. Its just one f**king thing after another”. This wonderful production reminds us of the brilliance of Alan Bennett’s writing, a playwright alongside Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde and perhaps in the modern era, James Graham, who can write with such wit and insight, provoke thought and reflection on society but most of all engage and entertain an audience. What more can we ask from our theatre?
***** Five stars
Reviewed by: Nick Wayne
The History Boys plays at Theatre Royal Bath until 31 August before touring. For more info, please click here.