Monday, May 26, 2008

The History Boys

Artists Repertory Theatre
May 2 - June 8, 2008

Review by peanutduck

Why this play now? Clichéd prep school drama - impressionable, overly clever boys, staff rivalry, sexual repression/expression, boy-fondling, teacher as subversive leader. Script, and played up by direction, often heavy-handed, overly ironic; scenes rarely more than platform sound bites. It is the ensemble’s skill and commitment that makes it endurable.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was at the opening of History Boys last week and was very impressed by the performances of the 2 teachers, Harder was excellant and very believable. The language was a bit crass and one should read the online reviews of the NewYork performances prior to viewing so you know what to expect. This play brings to life reality of happenings in todays schools and the question I was pondering after watching is who is molesting whom?

Anonymous said...

...who is molesting whom... well if Kretzu's directing...

Anonymous said...

the actors knew all their lines.
the temperature in the theatre was comfortable.
the seats are nice.
there was nothing wrong with the acting.
thank god the set had a huge collage on the back wall.
it gives one something to look at.
this is a 75 minute story told in 3 painful hours.
and the guy playing the new teacher seems to be chanelling william hurt, all twitchy and frownie. even his toes twitch inside his shoes --- you can see the tips jumping around.
whoever chose this play, needs to try harder.

Anonymous said...

Oh man, that's ironic.

Anonymous said...

Whoever chose the play did try Harder. I'm sure the director would like to try Harder. We should all try Harder!

Anonymous said...

mmmmmmm.... Harder.

Anonymous said...

Really enjoyed the play. Accents were pretty good especially the teachers. Students accents good to begin with but dropped off slightly as the play went on. Set very nice with good use of space for inside different classrooms and outside classrooms. Especially liked the bag of Walkers crisps (chips)for lunch. Nice touch. Overall, very good but some forewarning of content would have been good.
-AB