The History Boys

And so, at last, to the History Boys, and an inordinately expensive West End matinee in the company of elderly, mostly American, tourists, the kind who wear jackets and ties to go to the theatre. And what a magnificent theatre Wyndham’s is. The theatre was opened in 1899 and to this day retains décor in the Louis XVI style (so my programme tells me), a turquoise, cream and gold colour scheme, and a circular ceiling in the style of Francois Boucher (yeah still typing out the programme). Very grand.

And it is a very enjoyable experience. The play is well written and acted - funny, sad, clever and never boring.

But it is, the more I think about it (and I am nothing if not someone who thinks about it), a very peculiar play (but then Alan Bennett is a very peculiar person). It is not immediately clear when the play is set – the musical interludes suggest the 1980s, the political and cultural references which frame the play suggest the present, but there is also a feel of the 1950s. In truth it is set, both in time and place, in Alan-Bennettsville, in a school where a boy can admit to a crush on another pupil without being bullied and abused into a suicidal state, where kids don’t bring guns and knives and skunk contaminated with shards of glass to school, where a teacher can fondle his pupils and show no shame and still be considered a hero who’s behaviour is morally equivalent to the headmaster trying to fumble with his secretary. Most of the character’s speech patterns are like Bennett’s; slow, careful, clever, and slightly fey, with a touch of whimsy. And he gets away with some stupendous swearing (including the expression “cuntstruck”, marvellous) and a lot of sexual content.

I am not saying Alan-Bennettsville is a bad to place to be – in many ways it is as good a place to be as any you could wish for – but is remarkable how little comment has been made of these aspects of the play.

In summation: enjoyable, worth seeing, and a little peculiar.