I saw this play almost exactly ten years ago on the closing night of its Broadway run. I bought the play soon after, and I also own the movie version (with the same cast), although I've never watched it. It's a play that has stayed with me for a decade, and I was really curious (and a little apprehensive) about what it would be like to read it after so long.
It's amazing how indelible certain performances can be. I can still hear Samuel Barnett saying almost all of Posner's lines, but the rhythm of the words on the page is so crystal clear for all of the characters that most of the time I'm not hearing specific actors' choices, I'm hearing the talent of a playwright who can capture a character in two or three words. The play is about education, and class, and when narrative and surprise is more important (or at least attention-getting) than the truth, and while all of those issues were important and vital twelve years ago when it was written, it feels frighteningly relevant for right now. And yet it's not a play that's about the virtue of truth verses the sham of fiction; none of the characters are without flaws, and some of the most sympathetic characters are in fact the most morally suspect. The only real exception is Mrs Lintott, who is the only woman in the play and also has the least power and influence. This isn't a coincidence.
It's a play and a story that makes me feel a bit like my heart has been scooped out of my chest. It's about being known, and seeing your reflection in the writing of someone else, someone whose words have made it to you across time and without specific direction, but which have hit a bull's eye nonetheless. I think in some ways reading it at the age of 36 hit me even harder than seeing it at 26 did.
The other great thing about reading it is the foreward; Bennett discusses how and why he wrote it, and what was behind it, and while sometimes that can be dangerous, in this case it just deepened my appreciation for it, and for the collaboration and creative process of theater. It made me miss being a part of that very very much.
I also find it fascinating that The History Boys was on Broadway the same year Spring Awakening debuted on off-Broadway and then transferred to Broadway shortly thereafter. They were developed and created completely separately, but there are so many common themes between them, beyond the setting of a classroom. They both make my heart ache.
Grade: A
It's amazing how indelible certain performances can be. I can still hear Samuel Barnett saying almost all of Posner's lines, but the rhythm of the words on the page is so crystal clear for all of the characters that most of the time I'm not hearing specific actors' choices, I'm hearing the talent of a playwright who can capture a character in two or three words. The play is about education, and class, and when narrative and surprise is more important (or at least attention-getting) than the truth, and while all of those issues were important and vital twelve years ago when it was written, it feels frighteningly relevant for right now. And yet it's not a play that's about the virtue of truth verses the sham of fiction; none of the characters are without flaws, and some of the most sympathetic characters are in fact the most morally suspect. The only real exception is Mrs Lintott, who is the only woman in the play and also has the least power and influence. This isn't a coincidence.
It's a play and a story that makes me feel a bit like my heart has been scooped out of my chest. It's about being known, and seeing your reflection in the writing of someone else, someone whose words have made it to you across time and without specific direction, but which have hit a bull's eye nonetheless. I think in some ways reading it at the age of 36 hit me even harder than seeing it at 26 did.
The other great thing about reading it is the foreward; Bennett discusses how and why he wrote it, and what was behind it, and while sometimes that can be dangerous, in this case it just deepened my appreciation for it, and for the collaboration and creative process of theater. It made me miss being a part of that very very much.
I also find it fascinating that The History Boys was on Broadway the same year Spring Awakening debuted on off-Broadway and then transferred to Broadway shortly thereafter. They were developed and created completely separately, but there are so many common themes between them, beyond the setting of a classroom. They both make my heart ache.
Grade: A
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