The History Boys | |
---|---|
Written by | Alan Bennett |
Characters |
|
Date premiered | 18 May 2004 |
Place premiered | Royal National Theatre, London |
Original language | English |
Subject | An unruly bunch of bright, funny boys in pursuit of sex, sport and a place at university. |
Genre | Comedy-drama |
Setting | 1980s |
The History Boys is a play by British playwright Alan Bennett. The play premiered at the Royal National Theatre in London's West End 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.
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]
Irwin is said to be modelled after Niall Ferguson. [3]
The play includes several non-speaking roles:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Role | First cast | Second cast | Third cast | Fourth cast |
---|---|---|---|---|
18 May 2004 to 2005, 23 January 2006 to 1 February 2006 (international tour, film adaptation) | 24 November 2005 to January 2006 (UK tour) | 31 August 2006 to 14 April 2007 | 6 September 2007 to 26 April 2008 | |
Headmaster | Clive Merrison Malcolm Sinclair (23 January 2006 to 28 January 2006, international tour until Broadway) | Bruce Alexander | William Chubb | David Mallinson |
Hector | Richard Griffiths | Desmond Barrit | Stephen Moore | Desmond Barrit |
Irwin | Stephen Campbell Moore Geoffrey Streatfeild (20 December 2004 to 2005) | Tobias Menzies | Orlando Wells | Tim Delap |
Mrs Lintott | Frances de la Tour Maggie Steed (23 January 2006 to 28 January 2006, international tour until Broadway) | Diane Fletcher | Isla Blair | Elizabeth Bell |
Akthar | Sacha Dhawan | Marc Elliott | Alton Letto | |
Crowther | Samuel Anderson | Kenny Thompson | Akemnji Ndifornyen | Nathan Stewart-Jarrett |
Dakin | Dominic Cooper | Jamie King | Ben Barnes (pre February 2007) Jamie King (post February 2007) | Andrew Hawley |
Lockwood | Andrew Knott | Matt Smith | David Poynor | Sam Phillips |
Posner | Samuel Barnett | Steven Webb | Daniel Fine | |
Rudge | Russell Tovey | Philip Correia | Ryan Hawley | |
Scripps | Jamie Parker | Thomas Morrison | Thomas Howes | |
Timms | James Corden | James Cartwright | Owain Arthur | Danny Kirrane |
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]
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:
After a successful run the West Yorkshire Playhouse/Bath Theatre Royal production was revived for 2011 with the following cast:[ citation needed ]
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.
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]
Year | Award ceremony | Category | Nominee | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
2005 | Laurence Olivier Award | Best New Play | Won | |
Best Actor in a Play | Richard Griffiths | Won | ||
Best Performance in a Supporting Role | Samuel Barnett | Nominated | ||
Best Director | Nicholas Hytner | Won |
Alan Bennett is an English actor, author, playwright, and screenwriter. Over his entertainment career he has received numerous awards and honours including two BAFTA Awards, four Laurence Olivier Awards, and two Tony Awards. He also earned an Academy Award nomination for his film The Madness of King George (1994). In 2005 he received the Society of London Theatre Special Award.
Bob Crowley is a theatre designer, and theatre director. He lives between London, New York and West Cork in the south west of Ireland.
The Royal National Theatre of Great Britain, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT) within the UK and as the National Theatre of Great Britain internationally, is a performing arts venue and associated theatre company located in London, England. The theatre was founded by the actor Laurence Olivier in 1963, and many well-known actors have performed with it since.
Sir Nicholas Robert Hytner is an English theatre director, film director, and film producer. He was previously the Artistic Director of London's National Theatre. His major successes as director include Miss Saigon, The History Boys and One Man, Two Guvnors. He is also known for directing films such as The Madness of King George (1994), The Crucible (1996), The History Boys (2006), and The Lady in the Van (2015). Hytner was knighted in the 2010 New Year Honours for services to drama by Queen Elizabeth II.
Frances J. de Lautour, better known as Frances de la Tour, is an English actress. She is known for her role as Miss Ruth Jones in the television sitcom Rising Damp from 1974 until 1978. She is a Tony Award winner and three-time Olivier Award winner.
Richard Thomas Griffiths was an English actor. He was known for his portrayals of Vernon Dursley in the Harry Potter films (2001–2010), Uncle Monty in Withnail and I (1987), and Henry Crabbe in Pie in the Sky (1994–1997). Over his career he received numerous accolades including a Tony Award and Olivier Award as well as a nomination for a BAFTA Award. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2008.
Clive Merrison is a Welsh actor of film, television, stage and radio. He trained at Rose Bruford College. He is best known for his long running BBC Radio portrayal of Sherlock Holmes, having played the part in all 64 episodes of the 1989–1998 series of Sherlock Holmes dramatisations, and all 16 episodes of The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (2002–2010).
Steven Michael Webb is an English actor in theatre, television and film.
Andrew Knott is a British actor. He is known for portraying Dickon Sowerby in 1993 film adaptation, The Secret Garden, based on the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and as Henry Green in the television drama series, Where the Heart Is. He has also appeared in the sitcom, Gavin & Stacey as Dirtbox.
Samuel Barnett is an English actor. He has performed on stage, film, television and radio and achieved recognition for his work on the stage and film versions of The History Boys by Alan Bennett. His television performances include roles in the BBC comedy Twenty Twelve and in the Showtime drama Penny Dreadful. He played the lead role of Dirk Gently in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, the 2016 BBC America adaptation of the book series by Douglas Adams.
The History Boys is a 2006 British comedy drama film adapted by Alan Bennett from his 2004 play, which won the 2005 Olivier Award for Best New Play and the 2006 Tony Award for Best Play. It was directed by Nicholas Hytner, who directed the original production at the Royal National Theatre in London, and features the original cast of the play.
Stephen Campbell Moore is a British actor. He is best known for his roles in Alan Bennett's play The History Boys and the film based on it. He has starred in the sci-fi television series War of the Worlds (2019–2021).
Dominic Cooper is an English actor known for his portrayal of comic book characters Jesse Custer on the AMC show Preacher (2016–2019) and young Howard Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with appearances in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and the ABC series Agent Carter (2015–2016), among other Marvel productions. Cooper played Sky in Mamma Mia! (2008) and its sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018).
Jamie Parker is an English actor and singer. He is best known for his role as Harry Potter in the original cast for the West End play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, for which he received a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play and a WhatsOnStage Award for Best Actor in a Play. He also received a nomination for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play as a member of the original Broadway version.
Sacha Dhawan is an English actor. He began his career in the ITV series Out of Sight (1997–1998), The Last Train (1999), and Weirdsister College (2001–2002). He originated the role of Akthar in the play The History Boys (2004–2006) and reprised his role in its film adaptation (2006).
Julia St John is an English actress. Her television credits include A Touch of Frost, The Brittas Empire, Agatha Christie's Poirot, Lovejoy, Minder, Harry Enfield and Chums, Lewis, and Victoria Wood, appearing in the episode Over To Pam.
Samuel Anderson is an English actor. He played Crowther in The History Boys, Danny Pink in the BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who and Daniel in the Sky1 sitcom Trollied.
The 60th Annual Tony Awards were held at Radio City Music Hall on June 11, 2006. The award ceremony was broadcast live on the CBS television network in the United States. The 2006 Tony Awards did not feature a host, but instead over 60 stars presented awards at the ceremony.
One Man, Two Guvnors is a play by Richard Bean, an English adaptation of Servant of Two Masters, a 1743 commedia dell'arte-style comedy play by the Italian playwright, Carlo Goldoni. The play replaces the Italian period setting of the original with Brighton in 1963. The play opened at the National Theatre in 2011, toured in the UK, and then opened in the West End in November 2011, with a subsequent Broadway opening in April 2012. The second tour was launched six months later, playing the UK, Hong Kong, Australia, and New Zealand. The second UK production in London closed in March 2014, before a third tour of the UK began in May 2014.
The Lady in the Van is a 2015 British comedy-drama film directed by Nicholas Hytner, and starring Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings, based on the memoir of the same name created by Alan Bennett.
The character of Irwin in Alan Bennett's play, The History Boys – a pushy, contrarian teacher who becomes a TV historian – is modelled on Ferguson...