The History Boys
I went to see Alan Bennett’s The History Boys at the Lowry on Friday. It was really quite good, but not as brilliant as I had been led to believe it might be. It is very enjoyable to watch, engaging and funny, but, as usual with these things, the hype is bigger than the thing hyped. And I don’t think it’s down to the cast or staging or anything like that. I’m just not convinced that Bennett’s play is quite as amazing as everyone makes out.
It has a whiff of nostalgia about it which I found unpleasant, not least because I hated school and dislike being reminded of the place. The Spirit of Morecambe and Wise Christmas Specials Past potters about in the background: while there are many genuinely funny moments in it, some of the jokes feel a bit laboured for a play. The characters have a tendency to break the fourth wall, and although it’s effective most of the time, a couple of the soliloquies to the audience are uncomfortably knowing and feel like the playwright is showing off a little. The token female character was just that: token. I got the feeling that the play was written all-male, and the poor Mrs. Lintott was crowbarred in later and given a few perspicacious-outsider speeches in an attempt at compensation. The plot is very clever, but rushes a little towards its conclusion. The use of film and music and the rapid-fire scene changes make one wonder whether the adverts are coming on soon, it feels so much like a TV production.
Overall, though, The History Boys is great fun, and has a lot of interesting things to say. The characters are genuinely likeable without being cloying or obvious, and the male teachers are particularly well realised. The characterisation of the headmaster is a rather sharp critique of much of what is perceived to be wrong with education nowadays, and, by contrast, Hector and Irwin, the two opposing teachers central to the entire play, are human and sympathetic. The couple of reviews I’ve seen seem to make out that it’s some sort of Awfully English Dead Poet’s Society, but there is rather more to it than that, and it never feels mawkish or manipulative.
With the film version just being released, I think this play is going to turn out to be one of those perennial classics that everyone is supposed to be familiar with. This is not entirely unjustifiable, and it can and probably will be force fed to sixth-form literature and drama students, for the next thirty years at least, without doing them much permanent damage at all.
Random factoid: the chap who played Hector, the endearingly crazy old-school teacher with an unfortunate penchant for groping his sixth-form students was also the voice of Marvin in the BBC radio and TV versions of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy.
Kitty Jimjams says:
Also, did you notice Mrs Lintott was the only person who said “cunt” and even better, she said it twice. How liberated!
I think better casting of Dakin would’ve made it hang together more coherently, myself, but I agree with you otherwise.
2006-11-27 11:30
Kitten Does Housework » Blog Archive » Happy, Texas says:
[...] [edit] Also, I went to see The History Boys in Salford, but frankly I think Mr Womble has more than adequately precis’d the experience. The dear voluble twonk. [...]
2006-11-27 11:33
Tom Ryan says:
Coincidentally, Mrs Robson, my brilliant A-Level English Language teacher, was the only teacher I ever heard say “cunt”. And although it was used in the cause of linguistic investigation, it certainly woke the class up.
2006-11-27 13:14
Amerella says:
I saw the film, not the play, as I’m a terrible prole, but I imagine the casting would make a huge difference in something entirely character-based like that. I have to say though, I found the film really really enjoyable; it didn’t say anything groundbreaking or fantastically deep, but it made me (and the whole cinema) laugh out load and sniff into my hanky a little bit… and of course I wanted to take at least one of the boys home with me ;)
2006-11-27 19:17