Alan Bennett's play
The History Boys(2004) proved a great success at London's National Theatre and on Broadway, with a film version released in October 2006. Bennett's lively two-act drama is packed with jokes, wordplay, poetry and music. It combines elements of comedy, tragedy, elegy, satire and farce to dramatize key questions about the purpose of education, the ethics of teaching, and the function of history in ways that are funny, provocative, moving and profound.
The play opens with Irwin, a forty-something government spin-doctor in a wheelchair, advising MPs on how to present to the public a controversial Bill to limit trial by jury. He suggests that such legislation should be portrayed as restricting liberty in order to provide greater security, comparing this trade-off to
1910 words
Citation: Tredell, Nicolas. "The History Boys". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 October 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=19266, accessed 27 November 2024.]
