School has never been so much fun

1:42pm Thursday 17th January 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

FANS of the film The History Boys aren't likely to be disappointed by this staging of the Alan Bennett play, now on at Wyndhams Theatre in London's West End.

It's slick, well acted, and a whole lot of fun.

And if you haven't seen the play or the movie before, you're in for a treat.

The plot is simple. It is 1983 in Sheffield. At a modest grammar school, a group of sixthformers with a batch of unusually good Alevel history results are streamed off as an elite set, to stay on an extra term and sit Oxbridge entrance exams.

If that sounds a bit dry, it's not.

There are conflicts between the pushy headmaster, the teachers who have got the boys so far - Hector and the no-nonsense Mrs Lintott - and the new man -rwin, who is recruited to get the boys through the written exams the universities used to demand.

It's not just the teaching methods which differ; Hector and Irwin are old and newschool homosexuals.

There are certain scenes, language and ideas which some people may feel uncomfortable with but it's a cleverly written play - witty with an underlying sorrow - and this cast does it full justice.