Playwright: Alan Bennett At: TimeLine Theatre, 615 W. Wellington Phone: 773-281-8463; $25-$35 Runs through: June 21. The Photo by Lara Goetsch
Flamboyantly theatrical, complex and intellectually rich, The History Boys is by the author of The Madness of King George and—decades back—Beyond the Fringe. Set in a 1980s Northern England boys school, it covers sexuality, spirituality, class warfare ( ethnic and economic ) and more. It does so with lightening speed and myriad cultural and historic references that will leave you eating dust if you pause to place them.
But at its heart, The History Boys frames a subject debated since Socrates drank hemlock for corrupting youth, and still unsettled today: Do we educate our children to succeed or do we educate them to think? They aren't the same thing even when they are found together. Put another way, do we school our children to pass tests and achieve grades? Or do we school our children to develop independent critical faculties? Do we teach them facts merely as an end? Or do we teach them facts as part of a more comprehensive method?
Nearing retirement, Douglas Hector is a popular teacher who sharpens the critical faculties of his eight senior students approaching their university entrance exams. Hector encourages extravagant intellectual expression and emphasizes the interrelationships of cultural and historical threads. He is pitted against the much-younger Mr. Irwin, whose task is to land the boys at prestigious Oxford University. Hector and Irwin fight for the souls of the bright and outgoing lads, but both have an Achilles' heel: they are closeted men deeply attracted to the boys, especially to handsome, self-aware and sexually precocious Dakin. Careless Hector falls while careful Irwin doesn't, but the details of Hector's fall have less to do with the theme than with playwright Alan Bennett's cleverness.
Veteran workhorse actor Donald Brearley—in a rare plumb leading role—is pitch-perfect as the dedicated but world-weary Hector, a role that demands great size but also great control and focus. He is supported by a wonderful ensemble, among them Andrew Carter as the emotionally smaller and cagier Irwin. Both are buoyed by the young actors who form the brilliant, multi-hued octopus of students. Diverse in ethnicity, proportions and personality ( among them a gay boy in love with Dakin ) , they respond as a unit to the play's fast-moving physical and emotional demands, quite wonderfully staged by Nick Bowling on Brian Sidney Bembridge's fluid and environmental old school scenic design.
The play is much longer ( nearly three hours ) than it need be to tell its story as Bennett stops repeatedly for sketch-like pieces displaying the boys' ( and Bennett's ) precocity. Their singing and reciting is unnecessary material, but it's bloody wonderful and well-done. That's why Bennett is a star writer, and why The History Boys has been so highly anticipated. It doesn't disappoint.
