Alan Bennett’s The History Boys comes to the Theatre Royal Brighton from Monday 29 March to Saturday 3 April as part of a UK tour.
One of the great plays of the decade and now considered a modern classic, The History Boys is set in a school in the North of England, where a bunch of boisterous, bright, funny, sixth-form boys are attempting to gain entrance to Oxford or Cambridge whilst evading the distractions of sport and sex.
In Alan Bennett’s much-loved play, staffroom battles and the anarchy of adolescence provide a rich vein of comedy. The headmaster has his eye on the league tables but the endearingly eccentric English teacher, Hector, has very different ideas about how the boys should be prepared for exams and for life. Taking them through an eclectic timetable encompassing everything from the great poets to Edith Piaf, Hector insists that learning is for life, not just for the exam room.
When the Headmaster brings in Irwin, a bright junior master, to coach the boys, the pupils' allegiances are divided. Alan Bennett is one of the most distinctive voices in British theatre. Wry and tender, his impeccably-observed plays include Talking Heads, Single Spies, Forty Years On, Habeas Corpus, The Madness of George III and The Lady in the Van.
His new work, The Habit of Art, an imagined encounter between W. H. Auden and Benjamin Britten, is currently enjoying a sold out run at the National Theatre.
Hector is played by Gerard Murphy, whose numerous stage credits at the Royal Shakespeare Company, Bristol Old Vic, Manchester’s Royal Exchange, Northampton’s Theatre Royal, Birmingham Rep and Sheffield Crucible include King Lear, Turandot, I’ll Be The Devil, Hamlet, Henry V, Blue/Orange, Volpone, The Weir, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, A Moon for the Misbegotten, Amadeus, Assassins and The Thebans. On television, Gerard’s credits include Spooks, Dalziel and Pascoe, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Trial and Retribution, Waking the Dead, McCallum, Vanity Fair and Doctor Who. His film work includes Waterworld and Batman Begins.
This is the fourth Bennett play which Christopher Luscombe has directed, following Enjoy, The Lady in the Van and Single Spies.
Forthcoming productions include Monty Python's Spamalot and his production of The Merry Wives of Windsor which returns to Shakespeare's Globe this summer.
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Tickets from £17 - www.ambassadortickets.com/brighton