REVIEW: THE HISTORY BOYS @ THEATRE ROYAL PLYMOUTH

🎭 The History Boys

📍  The Lyric, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Royal Parade, Plymouth, Devon, PL1 2TR

🗓 Tuesday 17th September 2024

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PRODUCTION ISSUES

Alan Bennett's cult-hit play THE HISTORY BOYS is celebrating 20 years since it first premiered at London's National Theatre with this new production touring the UK, and playing all this week at Theatre Royal Plymouth.

During its original run, the play won three Olivier Awards - Best New Play, Best Actor and Best Direction, but unfortunately this production feels somewhat cheap. It's somehow too small for the venue and gets lost on the stage. Maybe if this tour was taking place in more intimate venues, such as The Drum, then it would have worked but on a big stage the show felt clunky and lazy.

It's such a shame because the writing is sensational, Bennett at his absolute best. It's very wordy and intelligent but never loses its audience, even though we are not all English and History scholars!

The central piece of set rotated to represent whether or not the boys were in the classroom, but this became very monotonous as the company plodded their way in performing the task. Pieces of furniture were brought on and off periodically - indeed it seemed that the only reason there was even an ensemble was to perform these mundane tasks and just seemed a waste of talent.

Another issue with the piece is the lack of sound. By which I mean there was zero microphones used to project the actors voices. Again, in a smaller venue this wouldn't have been an issue but in a large auditorium voices sometimes became lost and if anyone near you coughed or made any sound you missed what was said. When the piano played on stage it completely drowned out the actor's voices.

It sounds like a lots of negatives so far but one huge positive that this version of THE HISTORY BOYS has is its cast who were, for the most part, sublime. Lewis Cornay stole the show for me as Posner. He completely embodied every nuance of the character with wonderfully intricate detail and it was as if the role had been written just for him.

Other notable performances came from Yazdan Qafouri as Scripps and Archie Christoph-Allen, who is making his professional debut in the show, as Dakin. Both acted with utter conviction and were completely believable. Teddy Hinde was full of energy as Timms and had perfect comic timing.

This is by no means a musical but the boys do sing and their harmonies are breathtaking. They often sing a cappella and the auditorium fills with the most beautiful sound during these moments. Moments which are worth seeing the show for.

Gillian Bevan holds her own as the only prominent female in the production and as Mrs Lintott is commanding throughout and really knows how to land a line so that it hits just right.

Unfortunately I found that Jolyon Young struggled to portray the intimacies of Hector. I often found him to be merely saying the lines rather than delivering them. I understand that he was an understudy and any regular readers of mine will know that I am a great advocate for swings and understudies, but I did find his performance a bit rushed and lacklustre. I know in the theatre things can change in an instant and he may have gone on at the last minute and could even have been the first time he had played the role in front of an audience, but I have to base my review on what I saw on the stage and I felt a stronger performance from him would have aided the production.

As ever I implore you to make up your own mind and the script here is phenomenal, as are the performances from the boys so it's definitely worth checking out if you get the chance. As mentioned above I have major reservations about the production itself but the positives here are strong.

THE HISTORY BOYS continues performances at Theatre Royal Plymouth until Saturday 21st September. Click here to check availability and to book tickets.

Neill Kovacic-Clarke

All views are my own and I pride myself on being honest, fair and free from influence. Theatre is subjective and it is important to remember that all views expressed are just those of one reviewer.  

My ticket for this performance of The History Boys was gifted by Theatre Royal Plymouth who invited me to watch the show in exchange for my honest review. The fact that my ticket was gifted played no part in the content of my review or the star rating given.

CAST AT THIS PERFORMANCE (in order of appearance):

Lewis Cornay as Posner; Yazden Qafouri as Scripps; Tashinga Bepete as Crowther; Teddy Hinde as Timms; Curtis Kemlo as Lockwood; Ned Costello as Rudge; Milo Twomey as Headmaster; Mahesh Parmar as Akthar; Archie Christoph-Allen as Dakin; Gillian Bevan as Mrs Lintott; Jolyon Young as Hector; Bill Milner as Irwin; Rob Astillo as Ensemble; Rowena Bentley as Ensemble; Elliot Parchment-Morrison as Ensemble; Morgan Phillips as Ensemble; Zrey Sholapurkar as Ensemble

RUNNING TIME (approx):

2 hours 45 minutes, including interval

CONTENT WARNINGS:

Bad language; Themes of abuse; Themes of death