History Boys (October 10, 2007)

Imagine The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie with slightly older, male children. These 8 boys are all studying for scholarship exams to Oxford and Cambridge in their last year of secondary school. Now imagine that these slightly older male children have two male teachers competing for their affections, both mentally and physically. The fresh young teacher wants them to purposely incite debate by using controversial arguments for the sake of standing out in the exam marking process. He is quietly gay and keeps checking out the cockiest, most attractive boy of the bunch. The older, experienced teacher (whom they all adore) teaches them literature, cinema, poetry and French for their own sake, both the in the artistic sense and the conversationally glib sense. This teacher also likes to fondle the hot boys as he takes them home from school on his motorbike. The boys are of the opinion that this is an annoying inconvenience, but none of them actually care. They go so far as to joke about how they should be scarred for life. Yep, I suppose so, if they bothered to care.

What follows is a very clever but ultimately inconclusive commentary on many things about both the Western education system (e.g. the actual learning process itself, the place of women in history, revisionist history, memorization, art for what sake) and the lure and allure of charismatic teachers. There’s a nice closing at the end about what happens to each of the 8 boys after college – saying that, at the end of the day, what’s most important is thinking for ourselves and what we want, not what other people want us to be.

This is all well and good, but it’s not as clean, nice, or inspiring as it sounds. The hottest piece of underage ass, Dakin, lusted after by practically everybody on stage, is a narcissistic asshole. He’s too clever and savvy for his own good, and he doesn’t care who he’s fucking as long as he’s on top. In short, the sort of person who (frustratingly) gets ahead in life through dodgy means and always comes out unscathed while many around him crash and burn. Posner, the only one of the students who is actually gay, (and quietly in love with Dakin) is the kind of impressionable, quiet type, who does his best to please everyone and in the end can’t even please himself. He’s the most academically gifted of the lot, but doesn’t have the spine or the balls to do anything with it of his own accord. The other 6 boys are varying degrees of bright, self-aware, and ambitious, and they meet various ends. It was good how there was no happily ever after, but…

I had very weird dreams the night after I saw this. I’m willing to bet that this was because of my own experiences with amazing teachers, none of whom molested me. I think that the sexual aspect to the teacher/pupil relationships was overdone and a conveniently controversial point for the playwright, which was more frustrating the more I thought about it. As far as the students were concerned, they put up with having their balls fondled because they loved the way their teacher inspired them – it was almost a non-issue for the people whom it should have been affecting the most. This ultimately vilified his unorthodox teaching methods, and everything they learned that were valuable life lessons were mitigated. The teacher’s innocence regarding his molestation of the boys (which I know sounds ridiculous but take my word for it) was completely crushed, as was his life and career.

Ignoring the molested students, History Boys would be a commentary on the loss of that individuality in teaching that makes school fun for the smart kids there, and the rise to prominence of postmodern cynicism. But because MOLESTER flashes at you in neon lights for the entirety of the play, that message is lost. I’m not saying that the teacher should have been molesting his pupils, or that there is any excuse for his behaviour. Molestation = bad. But it takes the focus off of the more philosophical, more interesting issues of what education is, teaching to tests, and the draw of charismatic teachers. Molestation: the big shiny cop out.

While it’s true that good teachers can have cult-like followings, especially in schools with many bright students, the propensity in modern literature to make them into child molesters or completely damaged, deranged, and manipulative human beings frustrates me to no end. It simply does a disservice to their work. It’s also unrealistic to make these people into selfless Pollyannas, but there should be a way to create some kind of a medium.

And don’t get me started on the NAMBLA insinuations that pervaded the entire performance.

Was I glad I saw it? Definitely; very clever, very good writing, and the performance itself was fantastic. But it left a really bad, frustrating taste in my mouth. Life is life? It helps a lot if you’re cynical and manipulating.