The History Boys
“Pass the parcel. That’s sometimes all you can do. Take it, feel it and pass it on. Not for me, not for you, but for someone, somewhere, one day. Pass it on boys.”
This is some advice a teacher gives his students in “The History Boys”, and I believe, to some extent, this is the basis of all teaching. Teachers pass on what they know, and students then pass on their knowledge to another generation. You could say this is the basis of all civilisation. We learn from those who have gone before. We learn from our history. Or at least we should.
One of the things ‘The History Boys’ looks at is different teachers and their teaching styles. Should teachers focus on getting their students through exams to the exclusion of other learning? Or should teachers inspire their students well beyond the end of the year, to equip them with knowledge and culture that will go with them for the rest of their lives, long after the exams are forgotten. A gift that goes on giving. One boy, Posner, played by Ben, conveys this dilemma so well when he discusses his personal problems, “Literature is medicine, wisdom. Everything. It isn’t though, is it?”
The play is set in the early Eighties in a boys’ grammar school, where, after their A levels, the boys are taking exams to hopefully find places at Oxford. The last time I taught in England, in the early Eighties, I also taught in a boys’ grammar school and prepared students for a similar exam, though my boys were, I suppose, The English Boys. This was thirty years ago, and things have changed a great deal, and those times, Margaret Thatcher, the Miners’ Strike and music by New Order, are now part of history themselves.
To be able to stage “The History Boys” is a privilege, that we have the actors in school to be able to even cast it: a young teacher just out of college who looks like one of the boys (well, except for his beard), an older teacher on the verge of cracking up, a grumpy old headmaster, a good-looking boy who loves himself, a mild-mannered boy who knows everything there is to know about everything and a boy who plays the piano like ringing a bell. Sounds familiar? Actually, now I think about it, it was so easy to cast!
For me, one of the best things about the process has been working so closely with Bennett’s text. Bennett can make you laugh out loud and he can make you cry, but what makes him special is that he can do these two things sometimes in the same line: for example when Mrs. Lintott says, “What is history? History is women following behind with the bucket.”
Oh yes, and working with the actors, both teachers and students, has been sort of OK too. Love you dahlings, love your work!
John Grime
The History Boys will be performed in The Memorial Hall, Sunday 29th and Monday 30th June, 6:30pm. Tickets free.
NB: Some content may offend and is not suitable for students below Year 9.