Alan Bennett’s The History Boys has been brought to the Old Red Lion Playhouse by director Florence Carr-Jones and their lively cast of twelve. Performing in the intimate setting above the pub, this production sets its sights on creating oftentimes vividly uncomfortable scenes to make the audience squirm. Stellar acting notwithstanding, though, Classroom Company’s The History Boys dared to reach just shy of its true potential. Whatever ‘truth’ may be, anyway!
The play follows the tale of eight boys in the sixth form, on a mission to get themselves Oxbridge spots, a mission both helped and harmed by their teachers. As the story progresses, the audience bears witness to their interpersonal escapades, the uncomfortable progression of sexual abuse, and intense discussions on the events of history and the meaning of truth.
Truth and history are just as much suggestions to the events of this play as they are within its discussions. This is an exciting idea, as evidenced by The History Boys’ enormous success at the National Theatre, but here the execution left a little to be desired. It ended up feeling like there was not much to hold on to, with no anchor around which to centre our investment in the story.
This production of The History Boys does not take a bold stance in any of its creative design elements, something that does not work in its favour, particularly when it comes to its setting and time period. It became a little difficult for the audience to understand the stakes of the story, because these two elements in particular are crucial to understanding not only the likelihood of the boys’ missions to get into Oxford or Cambridge, but also the expectation of how the school might deal with the alarming instances of student sexual abuse.
The production made good use of its small performance space, and the actors’ positioning on stage was always varied and interesting. Sound and set design, however, may be the first areas for improvement. Technical issues on the night aside, the sound design included some strange elements, particularly during scene transitions, such as loud beeps and oddly timed non-diegetic music.
The actors, though, were brilliant, and if you come to this show for one reason, it should be to see Leonardo Shaw as Irwin. Their performance was wonderfully convincing, with perfect diction to boot, playing the most convincing Oxbridge tutor imaginable. The boys also worked spectacularly well together, and some of the parts of the play I found myself most impressed by were, firstly, the school life moving tableaus created during scene transitions in act one and, secondly, the intricately constructed and fast paced historical discussion scenes from act two.
All things considered, this production of The History Boys feels a little messy, but the acting was able to untangle it into a coherent picture.
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