Phillyist Reviews... The History Boys

Bad theatre enrages me. I don't get angry for myself; I imagine the rest of the audience, or at least a portion of it, people who don't usually go to the theatre, people who came on a whim, or a first date, who are now thinking, "Plays. What's the point?" I imagine these people heading home to their televisions, Playstations and email, never again returning to the theatre, and I want to scream at the play's director and producers: "Well done. Well done: you've just hastened the apocalypse."

L-R: Brian Cowden as Rudge, Peterson Townsend as Crowther and Evan Jonigkeit as Dakin in Arden Theatre Company's production of The History Boys. Photo by Mark Garvin

However, The History Boys, currently running at the Arden Theatre, is not that kind of play: I walked home confident that the world still had a future. Here's the story: in a mid-level English high school in the 1980s, eight exceptional students prepare to take the entrance exams for Oxford University. Not only are they bright, but they have also memorized a vast amount of poetry under the instruction of their peculiar English teacher, Hector; however, their headmaster worries that they are not polished or savvy enough to impress the dons at Oxford. So, he hires a young teacher, Irwin, to train them to spin a clever answer, to say the unexpected, to perform. The two teachers, with completely different views of what education is, compete for the boys' allegiance as the deadline for the exams draws closer.

The play is extremely funny. One classroom scene, done almost entirely in French, had the whole audience laughing helplessly, as did the bizarre early scene where one schoolboy sings Edith Piaf. Great theatre like this subverts our expectations and stretches our view of life: the play brings up different kinds of sexual relations between students and teachers, and yet you barely notice that you've had a taboo thrown in your face, so skillfully does Arnold Bennett tell his story. Also, speaking as an Englishman, I was impressed by the American cast's accents. Most of the boys and their headmaster got the Sheffield accent very well, although Matthew Amendt, playing the teacher Irwin, was less successful: his sentences seemed to meander up and down the English-speaking world. I don't know if this was a deliberate choice: his character is meant to be disingenuous, after all.

On the opening night, the cast did feel as though they were still finding their way into their characters. Evan Jonigkeit, playing Dakin, was hypnotic when he was center-stage, but, given that Dakin is described as the most intelligent, the most dynamic and best looking of the students, it seemed odd that apart from those key scenes, he seemed to fade a little: I found myself trying to work out where he was in the moments when all the boys were talking. And I wasn't sure that I believed that Hector, played by Frank X, was really a weary, mournful teacher—plays have to convey a sense of "foregrounding" to the audience, a sense that much time has passed before the events on show begin, and I found myself withholding that trust from Hector, feeling conscious that I was watching an actor performing lines.

These are minor criticisms, and I'm sure, as the run continues, the actors will grow into their roles. This is a great show. When I picture all the people frustrated by their experiences in the theatre, who don't see its value, I want to hand them a ticket to the The History Boys, knowing that they are now in safe hands. Done—problem solved—human civilization survives for another year. On to the next battle.