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The Weekend Theater Presents
The History Boys
By Alan Bennett
December 5, 6, 12, 13, 19, 20
Education is a never-ending treat throughout your lifetime, a feast of stories that expand your mind. But wait - isn't it actually learning a bunch of pertinent facts and how to use them in whatever way is necessary to help you achieve success in life?
Those dueling concepts of how to mold the young minds of a group of British schoolboys are at the heart of "History Boys" by Alan Bennett, premiering Friday, Dec. 5 at the Weekend Theater in downtown Little Rock.
Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through Dec.
20 at the performance space, located at Seventh and Chester streets (across from
Vino's). Tickets are $14 for general admission and $10 for students and senior
citizens aged 65 and older; for reservations or more information, call (501)
374-3761 or visit our Web site, www.weekendtheater.org
.
Winner of six Tony Awards including Best Play of 2006 in addition to three Laurence Olivier Awards, "The History Boys" is both a very funny comedy and a deeply moving drama, set in the 1980s at an English school.
Older teacher Hector (Tucker Steinmetz), wants to help his history students see the beauty of the stories of the past and inculcate a lifelong love of learning for the sake of it. The much younger Irwin's (Ian Moore) purpose is to show the boys how to explain the various factoids of history with preposterous (but at least marginally believable) hypotheses that will entertain the readers of their exams and ensure entry into a top university.
Hector is very likely on his way out - as the school's headmaster (Duane Jackson) puts it, his teaching is good, but not quantifiable.
And, really, all that is rather similar to the debate about American education during the past decade
"It's pertinent today, I think, because it deals with the issue of 'teaching to the test,' about doing whatever it takes to get these boys into Oxford or Cambridge," says Steinmetz.
He sees Hector as somewhat of a sad figure, but at least he knows himself, accepts his homosexuality, and arrives eventually at a sort of peace with his situation in the school.
Irwin, on the other hand, is hiding from himself. "He applies the same methods to his life as he does to his teaching of history," Moore comments, noting that Irwin denies his homosexuality. He sees Irwin as "a policy robot, twisting historical fact into what his handlers wish him to do. Even if truth were something to be held up to admire, it's not always easy to find."
Director Ralph Hyman makes an even more direct correlation to current America. "Education determines what we become. The education of Machiavellian ideals and teaching to the test ends up creating the society we've had for the past eight years."
The boys Hector and Irwin teach are a bright, rowdy, mostly ambitious bunch: Posner (Zachary Hickman), Dakin (Justin Pike), Scripps (William Moon) Rudge (Johnnie Brannon), Lockwood (Ryan Whitfield), Akthar (Seth Savoy) Timms (Jeremy Ricketson), and Crowther (Ebon Jones). Also dealing with these youngsters are Mrs. Lintott (Patti German), another teacher, and a movie director (Bill Weaver).
The young actors playing the students agree that most of their characters don't really play favorites with Hector and Irwin, but tend to take bits from both - and they're not above using the teachers' character quirks to acheive their own ends.
They've enjoyed learning the British accents - coached by Pippa Dean - and express amazement at the level of knowledge these young men in the play have attained. As William Moon notes, "They're talking about concepts like Nietzche that we weren't even introduced to." And Jeremy Ricketson adds, "They're 17 years old and spouting off Shakespeare like it's a second language."
And again, the question remains: Will these promising young men go for depth, or surface? "History Boys" may not give you a definitive answer, but will certainly provide much food for thought - and maybe a bit of mind-expansion.
Curtain Times
On Fridays and Saturdays, curtain times are at 7:30 p.m.
For special Sunday showings (Musicals only) curtain times are at 2:30 p.m.
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