Theatre Reviews

Set in Sheffield in the 1980's Alan Bennett's multi-award winning 'The History Boys' tells of a bright group of sixth-form boys after a place at Oxford or Cambridge.

Their free-spirited English teacher, Hector (Barrit), believes in the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, and takes a very different approach than the exam-savvy new supply teacher Irwin (Delap).

Irwin sees learning as a means to pass exams and is willing to put telling the truth on the backburner to get results. He encourages the boys when writing essays to approach a topic with some established historical assumption, and then prove the opposite. "A question has a front door and a back door," he explains. "Go in the back".

Meanwhile, the inspiring Hector, who likes to sprinkle his lessons with poetry not on the syllabus and gets the boys to re-enact film scenes, wants the students to learn for life and is disgusted at Irwin's methods.

Hector is also up against the ambitious headmaster obsessed with results (Mallinson), though the history teacher Mrs Lintott (Bell) is an ally - even if she has him down as a fool.

The boys are very fond of Hector, and seem mainly amused at his dodgy habit of giving them lifts home on his motorbike and attempting to cop a feel as the bike picks up speed.

They are a mixed bunch - there is the attractive, sexually explorative Dakin (Andrew Hawley) who takes pleasure in making people fall for him, the gay, Jewish Posner (Fine- who gives an outstanding performance) and the straight-up Rudge (Ryan Hawley), who just wants to play sport and is only applying because everyone else is.

Barrit gives a wonderful performance as the sad dreamer Hector and Elizabeth Bell is excellent as the no-nonsense, long suffering Mrs Lintott. There are plenty of pithy one liners and entertaining dialogue - even if it lacks realism - it seems unlikely that many 17-year-old lads communicate in this way and at times can come across well-rehearsed and formal.

The lively production will hold your attention until the end and is energised further up with snippets of scenes shown on a big screen with 80's music pumping out.  It is easy to see why the play has won so many awards since it opened in Britain's National Theatre in 2004 - among them the Tony, Laurence Olivier, Evening Standard and the South Bank award for theatre.

The play asks if we learn for the sake of knowledge itself, or for the opportunities it could allow us? The ending shows us how the boys turn out and reflects what parents want for their children today with Irwin's approach propelling him to success.

Mary McCarthy