THEATRE REVIEW: The History Boys [Theatre Buff]

Theatre Buff

Behind the scenes after the final curtain call...

THEATRE REVIEW: The History Boys

Posted on January 8, 2008 3:54 PM
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The History Boys
Wyndham's Theatre, Jan 7th.

Review By Zarina Raja

‘History is just one f****** thing after another.’

After a successful run on broadway, a UK tour and an international tour, Alan Bennett’s History Boys is back in London.

Verdict: wonderfully engrossing, largely enlightening and damn funny. My eyes were glued from start to finish. Not once did my thoughts wonder away into the tangled web of my mind. I was completely immersed by the pupils, the teachers and the constant witty one liners. I caught the small goblets of wisdom that were embedded in the play as they were flung around the theatre and tucked them away into my thoughts. It’s not often that a play subverts your existing thought process and lingers around until the next day.

There are many layers to The History Boys with so much to delve into. Firstly, there is the theme of school and growing up, perfected by the script and the actors. It makes you look back wistfully - with rose-tinted glasses - at your own school days. The simplistic classroom set, with its grey walls and plastic chairs, is spot on; you could almost smell that undeniable school-like scent wafting through the corridors.

The History Boys is the story of a class of sixth-form boys; cocky, arrogant, sarcastic and clever, all of whom are applying for a position at University. We are drawn in to the boys’ relationships with each other, with the teachers and the teachers own problems. It dwells brilliantly on the possibility of youth and the regret of adults.

The boys mesmerized the audience with their cock-sure attitudes and lashings of charm. The highly charismatic Daykin, loved by his class mate, a teacher and the Head Master’s secretary, is enticing and hypnotizing. He cleverly tarts himself about with everyone that he comes into contact with, greedy for success, sex and adoration – from men or women. It is a play largely at ease with homosexuality; it treads lightly through religion and touches upon the forbidden teacher-student relationships.

Despite The History Boys being a whirlwind of history, literature, and Philosophy, there is a cracking line or hilarious joke winging its way to you every few minutes.

‘I’m small, I’m a Jew, I’m homosexual and I live in Sheffield. I’m F***ed.’

‘History is f***ing. Discuss.’

‘History is the various incapability’s of men. History is the women following men with a bucket.’

The History Boys is a well rounded play; provoking, stimulating and hilarious. Definitely one to go and see in 2008.

Buy History Boys tickets.