Hector the general studies teacher wants his pupils to be rounded people. The boys know that. He challenges them to play out the endings of films – to find ones he won’t know.
They ask permission to smoke in class to enact the last lines of Now Voyager, starring Bette Davis. They find a smoke machine to perform a scene from Brief Encounter, a play which largely features steam trains.
A boy plays the piano while another sings Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, beautifully and movingly. This is an excuse for a great show.
The History Boys is set in the 1980s. Hector (played convincingly by Simon Rouse) teaches them the First World War poets.
He wants to enrich their lives. He isn’t interested in pushing them through exams.
Conversely, his colleague, the matter of fact Mrs Lintott played by Gillian Bevan (teachers don’t have first names in those days – Hector is a nickname the boys have given him) has filled the boys with enough information to get top grades at A Level.
But this isn’t enough to get them into Oxford or Cambridge. All the other applicants will also have grade As. They need that “extra something”.
So, the frustrated headmaster enrols a temporary teacher to coach them for their Oxford and Cambridge entrance exams.
Be controversial says Mr Irwin – find an argument to say that Stalin is a good guy.
The play is about many things, not just about whether education should be about the practicalities of life or the appreciation of the arts.
Hector likes to give some of them a lift home on his motorbike.
Driving with one hand, he gropes their personal parts with the other. They are wise to it. They indulge him by climbing on the back of the bike, but they put a hardback book between his hand and themselves.
He’s happy, they are safe. They accept this as normal and laugh about it.
The play is 20 years old now.
The original cast included Russell Tovey, Jamie Parker, James Corden, Sacha Dhawan, Dominic Cooper, Samuel Barnett and Stephen Campbell Moore. Both the play, and the film in 2006, won awards.
It’s not easy to follow that but the 2024 cast at Cambridge Arts Theatre provide an entertaining and engaging evening.
Archie Christoph-Allen is a very slick Dakin and Teddy Hinde is a Timms with great comic timing.
The play opens with delightful singing and glides along with uplifting tunes. Lewis Cornay as Posner has a fine voice, Yazdan Qafouri (as Scripps) plays a fine piano. The scenes are punchy and funny.
We believe we are seeing a cross-section of a grammar school – where the boys are clever and cheeky, and the teachers are at the same time trying to guide them and keep up with them.
Directed by Sean Linnen with interesting choreography by Chi-San Howard, this is a memorable night at the theatre.
The History Boys is at Cambridge Arts Theatre until Saturday, October 5 then touring.
