The Audacious Intelligence of "The History Boys"

If you follow my Brews, you'd probably realize I usually feel like quite the fish-out-of-water at these opening night Arts Club performances, full as they are of actors, agents, assigned seating, and critics who actually get payed. The sea of suits and sequins may be broken by the odd kimono - but everyone's pants seem to fit, the beards tend to grey, and they've all got perfect posture. I find myself convinced I've somehow ended up at a wedding or a funeral... 'til the soothing sound of the schmooze comes in to remind me that no, it's just another big-name debut from Bill Millerd and company.

As I perform the nicotine depleted dodge-and-weave after the curtains close, my eyes will inevitably find themselves falling to those platters of pygmy cheese cubes. Bites to kick-start conversation, they always leave me with an urge to draw some sardonic metaphor between Broadway play and post-performance hors d'oeuvre. It's not gonna happen, though, so long as the group keeps putting on such entertaining and artistically rich productions. Once again I've been forced to check my cynicism (ok, most of my cynicism) and praise the Vancouver debut of The History Boys as another complete success, and further testament to our city's theatrical prowess...

English playwright Alan Bennett's History Boys is a a Tony award-winning Broadway smash that originally debuted in London circa 2004. The critically heralded film was released two years later, and I've stayed expectantly oblivious the whole time. I blame that on my natural aversion to the word 'history,' something I in turn have to pin on my high school Social teachers - it's amazing the effect the level of pedagogic passion, or lackthereof, can have on framing the future attitudes of a student.

And thats exactly what this story is about: disputing what it really means to be a good teacher and coming to understand the true role of the student. The play ultimatley questions our conception of 'knowledge,' couched as it is in an all too artificial social world. We're introduced to Hector, teacher at an English grammar school in the early 80s. He's a man with an intense passion for poetry, but a severe lack of respect for the authoritarian school system, throwing aside curricula and grading for a maddeningly successful mix of intense literature, philosophy and adolescent frivolity.

Soon the headmaster, played with heartfelt hilarity in a highlight performance by Duncan Fraser, recruits young history teacher Irwin to help better tailor these passionate but ill-mannered prep school students for the Oxbridge admissions. It quickly becomes a high minded battle of educational philosophies, with only one thing really ending up clear: Alan Bennett is smarter than you. I guess thats what happens when you attend Oxford and Cambridge.

While I may tend towards the wordy, I'm only being true to the Bennett's tone by dropping bombs like 'pedagogic'; I'm sure if everyone who comes out of The History Boys can only agree on one thing, it's on the show's intelligence. It must be the most entertainingly verbose play I've ever seen, and kind of shatters any remaining cliches I've held about popular theater. I'm honestly surprised it found such success on Broadway, and am a little worried that it could fail to connect with some Vancouver crowds, complex and decidedly British as it is. But ultimatley, I feel enlivened that such great literature can still meet a wide audience, because this play is full of wisdom.

Arts Club veteran Bernard Cuffling turns in a stunning performance as Hector, pulling off the obscene passion, inner turmoil, and unceasing Auden quotations with such total conviction that I was lost in the character from the first scene forward. Kirk Smith is nearly as strong, whose shy and geeky Irwin is entirely convincing, but bound to make less of an impression on the audience - not to mention the students.

Speaking of those students, there's not a weak performance in the bunch. From Daniel Karasik as the gay and geeky Posner to Charlie Carrick as the hunky Dakin, they all handle the difficult script with confidence and are never overshadowed by Cuffling. From their verging-on-the-homoerotic ritual of classroom playacting to a hilarious WWII-as-dating metaphor heightened to the level of absurdity, the group had every intelligent and attentive audience member in stitches throughout. I wish high school students were this smart. Nearly all of the eight young actors are making their Arts Club debuts, and it's quite the nice surprise to see such universally strong performances. The future looks bright for this team...

I mentioned the homoerotic playacting, and I couldn't let this review end without devoting to at least one paragraph to the obviously important undercurrent of homosexuality which runs throughout the play (along with everything else that comes through Broadway?) While theres an unconventional boys-school comfort between the students - which reaches its peak during an uproarious French class - it's through the two instructors that sexual identity becomes a real focus and the question of the ideal student-teacher relationship is brought to a crux. I won't say much more, but again, I'm a little surprised the production was so widely embraced, wordiness withstanding.

Regardless, the play is easily the most intellectually engaging thing I've seen on a Vancouver stage in years, and is almost flawlessly delivered by director Dean Paul Gibson and his cast and crew. The biggest reservation I had was the set changes: 80s pop music blares while historical imagery is briefly projected to cover the stage. It's a technique I found confusing and distracting, in a story that otherwise feels quite timeless. And if you can't quite keep up with the frantic pace of cerebral oneupmanship, settle in for some solid head scratching - as the play itself fills nearly three hours. While I was with it 'til the end, I could see the average audience finding themselves just a little bit antsy by the final scene.

After the success of Doubt, I never would have expected the company's follow-up to be more effective. While two powerful, back-to-back productions that question the 'true value of education' may play into my Truman Show Complex, they also provide some perfect fodder for the praise I'm always throwing on the Vancouver theatre scene. It may be easy to poke fun at an Arts Club debut for all the apparent money, mingling, and mozzarella, but it's all towards the support some of our world's most daring and skilled contemporary playwrights and some of this city's finest young talent. I'm holding out that Beauty and the Beast will finally provide an opportunity to properly unleash the sarcasm... but until then, we have another winner.

The Arts Club presents The History Boys at the Granville Island Stage from September 25th - October 25th.

photos by David Cooper.