BWW Reviews: THE HISTORY BOYS, Crucible Theatre Sheffield, May 22 2013

It is appropriate that in the year that Sheffield Theatres is wearing The Stage's best regional theatre badge it has been showcasing the region. We have already had archetypal stories of pits and the decline of the steel industry; this time we are at school in Sheffield with Alan Bennett. Right from the get-go the audience is pulled in by the set, the very likeness of the multipurpose hall found at the heart of British schools, complete with a faded and chipped badminton court.

The boys of the title are back after their A Levels to prepare for their Oxbridge entrance exams and interviews. However, Hector (Matthew Kelly), an English master tutoring them in General Studies, detests the idea of teaching to the test; instead he sees his role as providing inoculations of culture in readiness for later life.

The headmaster (Nicholas Day) disagrees; he wants to be able to parade scholarship boys as a mark of the school's quality, so brings in Irwin (Edwin Thomas) to break them out of complacent competency and stand out from the crowd.

Posner (Oliver Coopersmith) is in love with the cocksure Dakin (Tom Rhys Harries) who is seeing the school secretary, Fiona (Stacey Sampson), who is being letched after by the Headmaster. Through all of this context and comment is provided by the pragmatically churchgoing Scripps (Will Featherstone) and stalwart history mistress Mrs Lintott (Julia St John). Those characters actually epitomise the heart of the play, flitting between reflecting on the past and yearning for the future, using narrative tricks to flirtatiously insinuate and foreshadow, exposing the play's bedrock to the audience and amplifying tragic inevitability.

It seems obvious that the watchwords for this production were youth, exuberance and potential, the cast energetically repurposing anything and everything in order to produce differing classrooms and the worlds being conjured within, all against a backdrop of higgledy piggledy exam desks, gym equipment and so on. All this is reinforced by the evocative sound design by Ben and Max Ringham and the generous garnishes of song and dance.

The History Boys has a reputation as a show that boosted the careers of The National Theatre original cast who were also in the 2006 film, and the same should happen for the younger members of this ensemble. A warm wave of delight rolls off of them and you truly feel the weight of potential for them and their characters. Coopersmith balances uncertainty, yearning and razzmatazz, Harries carpet-bombs the room with confidence and Thomas brings unexpected warmth to his portrayal of a character who starts out unlikable and through several phases descends into an utterly nasty piece of work.

Kelly has the difficult job of stepping into a part that is near synonymous with the recently late Richard Griffiths, but he is more than equal to the task (excepting an obvious lack of confidence with motorbikes). His Hector's closed door subversion is restfully comfortable, calm wisdom against the manic background. Julia St John brilliantly portrays the perfidy of someone only just managing to pay lip service to her boss while carrying the only female perspective in the play.

The sum total of all this elevates wit, repartee and gentle knowing humour to the point of raucous belly laughter before tapping into the audience's sentimental side.

The History Boys is on at the Crucible until Saturday June 8 and you may want to do some homework brushing up on your schoolday French before you go.

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