It’s a funny thing, history. In Alan Bennett’s play it’s certainly funny ha-ha, but enigmatically, it’s funny peculiar as well. There are degrees of history. There is “old” history like Henry VIII and the Romans which is so distant that nobody will be offended by opinions and interpretations and there is recent history, history within living memory, or with direct connections to us, that is of a more delicate nature, the Holocaust and the First World War, for example. For these events opinions have to be carefully considered, lest someone takes offence. History can be a very subjective affair, it depends where you are viewing it from. Crimes against humanity are often judged to be unjustifiable, but somebody must have justified them at some stage or they wouldn’t have happened. History is notoriously written by the victors but it is also written by society, by the moral climate. Things change and our views on history change with them.
In The History Boys, Hector is the sort of teacher that everybody dreams of having. He is a life changer, he inspires his pupils and makes them explore and appreciate subjects that are not on the school curriculum. He broadens their minds and they know it and they love him for it. He is like the father they all wish they had, or the kindly uncle.
The boys are entering their final term at a grammar school in Sheffield and a supply teacher is bussed in to prime them for their Oxbridge entrant’s exam – Hector is thought too liberal, too much of a free spirit for such an exercise by the ambitious headmaster who has his eye on the league tables.
The History Boys is, by all accounts, the most popular play ever, surpassing Hamlet, The Importance of Being Ernest and all the rest, and you can see why. The original production made stars out of many of the boys. It deals with so many issues it is sometimes difficult to keep track of them. It is outstanding drama full of great characters and issues that makes you look at things differently – much as Hector does with his pupils.
This production certainly conjured up the chalky feel of the school room and all the boys were all excellent. I liked Richard Hope as Hector although he lacked the seedy edge of Richard Griffiths. Alan Bennett, the older he gets, is taking on the mantel of Oscar Wilde with a quotable quote for all occasions. For example, history is dismissed by one of the boys as being just one thing after another. There are moments of hilarity – the best being near the beginning when the class re-enact, in French, a scene in a French brothel. Is this the first inkling of what the play is really about – sex?
The History Boys has turned out to be a strange phenomenon – a play about itself. When it was written, and certainly when it was set, in the early 1980s, adolescent boys exploring their sexuality, often with the connivance and occasionally with the participation of their teachers or the headmaster’s secretary, was considered, if not OK, then certainly something that could be swept under the carpet. Cue another nice quote – groping is groping, it’s not the annunciation. Nowadays, as we all know, a hue and cry in full swing for child abusers like Jimmy Savile, Gary Glitter, Rolf Harris et al. These are all historical crimes yet when they were committed times were different, attitudes were different.
There is the dilemma. I found it difficult to watch the play outside of today’s context of historical child abuse allegations. Hector is considered “a good chap” and is excused his “weakness” (The use and meaning of the word euphemism is discussed in the play). So is the new teacher, Irwin, who, though contained, also has designs on one of the boys, who it must be said, encourages him. Jimmy Savile and Rolf Harris were “good chaps” too, until they were found out. What’s the difference? Why are we happy to watch The History Boys and sympathise with dear, loveable old Hector when we are diligently, and, it sometimes appears, gleefully, locking up and reviling others for doing, on principle at least, more or less the same thing? That’s history for you, it all depends where you are standing. ★★★★☆ Michael Hasted at Cheltenham 31/03/15
Photo Matt Martin
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