Play by British playwright Alan Bennett
The History Boys
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Written by
| Alan Bennett
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Characters
| - Headmaster
- Hector
- Irwin
- Mrs. Lintott
- Akthar
- Crowther
- Dakin
- Lockwood
- Posner
- Rudge
- Scripps
- Timms
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Date premiered
| 18 May 2004
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Place premiered
| Royal National Theatre
, London
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Original language
| English
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Subject
| An unruly bunch of bright, funny boys in pursuit of sex, sport and a place at university.
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Genre
| Comedy-drama
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Setting
| 1980s
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The History Boys
is a
play
by British playwright
Alan Bennett
. The play premiered at the
Royal National Theatre
in London on 18 May 2004. Its Broadway debut was on 23 April 2006 at the
Broadhurst Theatre
where 185 performances were staged before it closed on 1 October 2006.
[
citation needed
]
The play won
multiple awards
, including the 2005
Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play
and the 2006
Tony Award for Best Play
.
Plot
[
edit
]
The play opens in Cutlers' Grammar School,
Sheffield
, a fictional boys'
grammar school
in the
north of England
. Set in the mid-late 1980s, the play follows a group of history pupils preparing for the
Oxford
and
Cambridge
entrance examinations under the guidance of three teachers (Hector, Irwin, and Lintott) with contrasting styles.
Hector, an eccentric teacher, delights in knowledge for its own sake but his ambitious headmaster wants the school to move up the academic league table and hires Irwin, a
supply teacher
, to introduce a rather more cynical and ruthless style of teaching. Hector is discovered sexually fondling a boy and later Irwin's latent homosexual inclinations emerge.
The character of Hector was based on the schoolmaster and author
Frank McEachran
(1900?1975).
[1]
[2]
Characters
[
edit
]
- Headmaster (Felix Armstrong) ? Headmaster
- Hector ? English and General Studies teacher
- Irwin ? History teacher; brought in as a special coach
- Mrs Dorothy Lintott ? History teacher
- Akthar ? Pupil; of Asian ancestry, Muslim
- Crowther ? Pupil; acts as a hobby
- Dakin ? Pupil; handsome, object of Posner's and Irwin's affection
- Lockwood ? Pupil; strong opinions
- Posner ? Pupil; youngest, gay and Jewish
- Rudge ? Pupil; better known for athletic skills than for intelligence
- Scripps ? Pupil; Anglican, plays piano
- Timms ? Pupil; joker, overweight
- Director on Irwin's television programme (a small role)
Irwin is said to be modelled after
Niall Ferguson
.
[3]
The play includes several non-speaking roles:
- Make-Up Woman, Production team ? on Irwin's television show
- Three or four unidentified MPs ? spoken to by Irwin in opening scene
- Other male pupils
- Fiona ? Headmaster's secretary; object of Dakin's affection. Does not appear on stage in the published text, but was seen in filmed projections featuring
Rio
by Duran Duran during the original production
[
citation needed
]
.
Productions
[
edit
]
Royal National Theatre
[
edit
]
The play opened at the
Lyttelton Theatre
(part of the National Theatre) in London on 18 May 2004, directed by
Nicholas Hytner
. It played to sell-out audiences and its limited run was frequently extended.
Richard Griffiths
,
James Corden
,
Dominic Cooper
,
Russell Tovey
,
Sacha Dhawan
,
Samuel Barnett
,
Jamie Parker
and
Andrew Knott
were among the original cast. On 24 November 2005, the same production was revived once again at the
Lyttelton Theatre
where it played another successful run.
Matt Smith
took on the role of Lockwood in the November 2005 revision of the cast. The original cast reunited in the final week in February 2006.
International tour
[
edit
]
Following closing in London, the National Theatre production toured to
Hong Kong
in February 2006 and featured in the 2006
New Zealand International Arts Festival
held in
Wellington
(February 2006) before playing at the Sydney Theatre in
Sydney
, Australia from 4 March to 8 April 2006. At each venue, the play was presented to sell-out audiences with the original London cast, including
Richard Griffiths
; however,
Frances de la Tour
and
Clive Merrison
were replaced by
Maggie Steed
and
Malcolm Sinclair
until the Broadway season.
Broadway
[
edit
]
The American premiere of the play took place on 23 April 2006 when the same National production opened on
Broadway
at the
Broadhurst Theatre
.
[4]
Originally scheduled to run through 2 September 2006, the run was extended through to 8 October 2006 following huge public demand after the show won the Tony, New York Critics Circle and other American theatrical awards.
West End
[
edit
]
Following its Broadway triumph and second UK tour, the play opened at London's
Wyndham's Theatre
on 2 January 2007, following previews from 20 December 2006. The production closed on 14 April 2007. A further West End run of the play opened once again at Wyndham's Theatre on 20 December 2007 running through 26 April 2008.
Tours in the UK and Ireland
[
edit
]
The first national tour of the production opened in 2005, continuing to play nine regional venues. A second Britain wide tour began on 31 August 2006 at the
Birmingham Repertory Theatre
, touring to eight further venues. The third tour launched on 6 September 2007 at the
Theatre Royal, Plymouth
, before continuing to
Truro
,
Cheltenham
,
Bath
,
Dublin
,
Blackpool
,
Leeds
,
Cambridge
and
Eastbourne
, culminating in
Newcastle
on 10 November 2007.
Royal National Theatre casts
[
edit
]
A majority of the original cast reunited on 2 November 2013 for the
National Theatre 50th Anniversary special
and performed the French lesson scene, with Philip Correia taking over for Russell Tovey, Marc Elliott performing as Akthar, original Akthar actor Sacha Dhawan as Posner (as Samuel Barnett was performing in
Richard III
/
Twelfth Night
on Broadway at the time) and playwright Alan Bennett taking over as Hector from Richard Griffiths, who had died in March 2013.
[5]
West Yorkshire Playhouse / Theatre Royal Bath tour
[
edit
]
A fourth national tour co-produced by the West Yorkshire Playhouse and Theatre Royal Bath commenced in early 2010. This was a new production not produced by the National Theatre and directed by Christopher Luscombe. The cast were as follows:
- Headmaster: Thomas Wheatley
- Hector: Gerard Murphy
- Irwin: Ben Lambert
- Mrs. Lintott: Penny Beaumont
- Akthar: Beruce Khan
- Crowther: Tom Reed
- Dakin: Kyle Redmond-Jones
- Lockwood: George Banks
- Posner:
James Byng
- Rudge: Peter McGovern
- Scripps: Rob Delaney
- Timms: Christopher Keegan
After a successful run the West Yorkshire Playhouse/Bath Theatre Royal production was revived for 2011 with the following cast:
[
citation needed
]
- Headmaster: Thomas Wheatley
- Hector: Philip Franks
- Irwin: Ben Lambert
- Mrs. Lintott: Penny Beaumont
- Akthar: Beruce Khan
- Crowther: Michael Lyle
- Dakin: George Banks
- Lockwood: Ryan Saunders
- Posner: Rob Delaney
- Rudge: Peter McGovern
- Scripps: Harry Waller
- Timms: Christopher Keegan
Other productions
[
edit
]
- The play had its southwest USA premiere at Uptown Players, in Dallas, from 3 April to 3 May 2009.
[6]
- The first non-professional UK production was staged by Daisy and Rose Theatre Productions at
Ermysted's Grammar School
in
Skipton
,
North Yorkshire
, on 28?30 August 2008.
[7]
- The play had its amateur debut in Melbourne, Australia, performed at the Cromwell Road Theatre from 18?25 July 2009 and directed by
Bryce Ives
.
[
citation needed
]
The first amateur production of the play (text released by
Samuel French, Inc.
) was performed at the St Helens Theatre Royal, on 19?22 August 2009.
[
citation needed
]
- The play made its Chicago premiere on 25 April 2009, at
TimeLine Theatre
.
[8]
- The Netherlands premiere was presented on 1 October 2009 by The Queen's English Theatre Company at the CREA Theater, Amsterdam ? featuring an English mother-tongue cast, starring Brian Andre as Hector and directed by Mark Winstanley. The same production formed the play's premiere at the
Edinburgh International Festival
in August 2010.
[9]
- An Italian adaptation debuted on 19 September 2010 at Teatro ElfoPuccini in Milan, directed by Elio de Capitani and Ferdinando Bruni.
[
citation needed
]
It won the Premio UBU 2011 as best show.
[
citation needed
]
- A Catalan adaptation debuted on 24 September 2008 at Teatre Goya in Barcelona. Director: Josep Maria Pou.
[10]
- The Sydney debut was performed at the
Sydney Opera House
by the Peach Theatre Company from 8 February to 2 March 2013, starring
John Wood
as Hector,
Heather Mitchell
as Mrs Linnott,
Paul Goddard
as Head Master, James Mackay as Irwin, Dakin:
Lindsay Farris
, Scripps: Aaron Tsindos. Crowther: Simon Brook McLachlan. Lockwood: Caleb Alloway. Arthur: James Elliott. Posner:Matthew Backer. Rudge: Gary Brun. Timms: Matt Hardie and is directed by Jesse Peach.
[11]
Film adaptation
[
edit
]
In October 2006 a film adaptation of the play was released in the United States, and later in November 2006 in Britain. The film, also titled
The History Boys
, was directed by Nicholas Hytner and featured the original stage cast.
Controversy
[
edit
]
The film did receive controversy revolving around the character of Hector, a professor who molests the students. Nick Clark of
The Independent
wrote, "Bennett raised eyebrows with his sympathetic portrayal of Hector, the teacher forced to step down for
fondling
his teenage pupils".
[12]
In a 2006 interview with David Batty of
The Guardian
, Bennett defended the storyline stating, "The boys are all consenting adults, and Hector's behaviour is very unthreatening. The boys all consider him to be a bit of a joke and just tolerate it as part of the price of his eccentric teaching style. I didn't write in his death to redeem his transgression, I did it to make the drama work."
[13]
In 2013 Bennett revealed he was "interfered with as a child but was not greatly affected by the experience".
[14]
Awards and nominations
[
edit
]
Original London production
[
edit
]
Original Broadway production
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
Awards for
The History Boys
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1955?1975
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1976?2000
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2001?present
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1948?1975
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1976?2000
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2001?present
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