I Will See This Play!!!

The 'Boys' Are Back, but Different

• By TERRY TEACHOUT

Chicago

It's rare for me to have such sharply mixed feelings about a play as I had about Alan Bennett's "The History Boys" when I first saw it on Broadway in 2006 -- so mixed, in fact, that I came away not knowing whether I really liked what I'd seen, impressed though I was by Nicholas Hytner's direction and the performances of Richard Griffiths and the ensemble cast. Ever since then I've been wanting to see "The History Boys" done by an American company (Mr. Hytner's film version was made with the same all-British cast that I saw in New York). Would Mr. Bennett's knowing tale of a class of self-consciously bright schoolboys and the teacher who loves them too well seem less slick the second time around?

Details

"The History Boys"
TimeLine Theatre Company
615 W. Wellington Ave., Chicago
($25-$35), 773-281-8463, extended through Aug. 2

"The Merchant of Venice"
Propeller
BAM Harvey Theater
651 Fulton St., Brooklyn, N.Y.
($25-$65), 718-636-4100, closes May 17

The answer has come with the Chicago premiere of "The History Boys," which is currently being performed by TimeLine Theatre Company, a highly regarded Windy City troupe that specializes in -- logically enough -- history plays. To say that TimeLine makes "The History Boys" work is to understate the case by a mile-wide margin. Nick Bowling's staging is actually more effective in certain key ways than the original National Theatre production, and to my mind more moving as well. While I still have a few lingering doubts about "The History Boys," I have none whatsoever about TimeLine's production, which is one of the smartest shows I've seen all season long.

The boys of the title are a group of promising teenagers from a second-tier school whose headmaster (Terry Hamilton) is pushing them to compete for scholarships to Oxford and Cambridge. Hector (Donald Brearley), their favorite teacher, is an art-for-art's-sake man who has no use for such blinkered snobbery. "You believe in God," he tells his students. "Believe also in me: Forget Oxford and Cambridge. There is a world elsewhere." So the headmaster hires Irwin (Andrew Carter), a cynical young tutor, to instruct the boys in the fine art of making an impression through sophistry. All of which makes Hector the hero, right? Well, not exactly, for this idealistic educator is also a closeted homosexual who has illicit designs on Dakin (Joel Gross), the most handsome and sexually mature of his charges.

Part of what made me uneasy about "The History Boys" when I saw it on Broadway was its smoothly polished surface, which caused it to come across as a glib critique of the evils of glibness. The plot was so deftly constructed and the boys so damnably smart that I found it hard to identify with anyone on stage. At the same time, Mr. Bennett clearly means for the audience to respond sympathetically to Hector's plight, which brings us to the other problem I had with "The History Boys": It can be read as an apologia for a pedophile, a message that isn't likely to go over well with viewers whose memories of front-page news stories about allegations of sexual abuses by Roman Catholic priests are both recent and raw.

How has TimeLine dealt with these difficulties? By scaling the show down from a big-budget proscenium-stage spectacle to an intimate drama played out in a performance space whose 87 seats are lined up on either side of the alley-style playing area. This makes it possible for the talented members of Mr. Bowling's beautifully matched cast to underplay their flashy parts instead of going for the throat. As a result, the boys now appear vulnerable rather than obnoxious -- just as Hector, their gravely flawed mentor, is less formidable than pitiful.

No small part of the potent effect of this production derives from Brian Sidney Bembridge's ingenious environmental set, which envelops the audience (you enter the theater through the boys' dorm rooms) and heightens the impression that you're in the middle of the fray. Still, it's Mr. Bowling and his top-drawer cast who are mainly responsible for changing my mind about "The History Boys." While I still find Mr. Bennett's here's-what-happened-to-everybody ending to be neat to the point of outright patness, I bought into the rest of the play this time around and cared about its characters. So will you.

I originally planned to end this review with the good-bad news that the entire run of "The History Boys" was sold out, but TimeLine has just announced a six-week extension of the show's original nine-week run. You now have until Aug. 2 to see "The History Boys," and I strongly suggest that you hurry to do so, no matter whether you live in, near or remotely close to Chicago. Not only is it as good as any of the first-class revivals now gracing Broadway, but you can get in for $25. That's not a bargain -- it's a steal.