History Boys, The Tickets

Must End 14 April!

The West End transfer of the hit Alan Bennett play The History Boys directed by Nicholas Hytner and the Winner of 30 major awards including Olivier and Tony awards for 'Best New Play'.

"The richest play Bennett has ever written. Wonderfully it blends wit and wisdom, with knockout humour and pain" The Financial Times

Set in the 1980s in the north of England, The History Boys charts the fortunes of an unruly bunch of bright, funny sixth-form boys in pursuit of of sex, sport and a place at Oxford or Cambridge University under the guidance of a maverick English teacher, a shrewd supply teacher - and a headmaster obsessed with results.

"A play of depth as well as dazzle, intensely moving as well as thought-provoking and funny" The Daily Telegraph

"The school gives them an education. I give them the wherewithal to resist it. Examine a boy and he is tamed already. Only examine him and you can tax him, empanel him, enlist him, interrogate him and put him in prison. You have only to grade him and you have got him".

The History Boys is an hilarious and thought-provoking play that explores the anarchy of adolescence and the purpose of education.

"A subtle, deep-wrought and immensely funny play about the value and meaning of education" The Guardian

Alan Bennett's play The History Boys was originally seen at The National Theatre's Lyttelton Theatre in May 2004, winning The Olivier Award for 'Best New Play', and playing an extended 12 month repertory season before returning in December 2005 for a further two month season in repertory. The production transferred to New York's Broadhurst Theatre on Broadway where it played a five month season, winning The Tony Award for 'Best New Play'. A film version of The History Boys, featuring the original stage cast, was released in October 2006.

Alan Bennett about writing The History Boys: "Plays begin with characters – particularly in this one, the character of Hector. I suppose the contrasting methods of Hector and Irwin do say something about the educational system today but that wasn't what I set out to write about. I wanted to put these two characters together in order to see what happened. That Irwin turned out to be (or end up as) a spin doctor rather took me by surprise, but the more history he taught, and his particular slant on history, made me see that there was a link between that sort of teaching and the sort of presentation that goes on in politics and the media."