Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Alex Pardey, James Boys, James Telfer, Martin Poile, Harry Parker, Jonny Campbell, Jack Conway, Liam Middleton, Akthar, Gertaint Williams, Barney Elliot, Alun Simpson, Georgina Rose.

There are moments in a young actor’s life, whether or not they take it any further in years to come or are content with having been a part of just one show, where they will look back and relish in the memory of what they achieved in two hours on stage.

For the cast and directors of Alan Bennett’s The History Boys, this was a moment to savour, enough wit and sophistication to charm an audience, as only Alan Bennett’s plays seem in modern days to do but also have that little something extra, the almost breathtaking ability to reduce a person to tears if they don’t get out quick enough from the auditorium at the end and catch sight of those that have so moved and beguiled them.

Alan Bennett’s tale of seemingly ordinary Yorkshire school life is a cut above a lot of plays that have had the incredible honour of being turned into films quite quickly after being written and it easy to see why. However the play is just as enticing and brings with it that certain attraction, the melancholic brilliance and shameless beauty that takes good actors into the realms of future great ones.

Directed by Darren Begley and the superb Jessica Beare, herself a superb actor in the making after her portrayal in Fanny and Faggot in 2012, this team of young theatre makers bought out an incredible array of talent for this show and in time honoured fashion they gave everything to the performance. Amongst them was Alex Pardey as Dakin, Martin Poile as Scripps, Gertaint Williams as Irwin, the ever reliable and outrageously good Barney Elliot as the much loved teacher Hector and the wonderful Georgina Rose as Mrs Lintott.

Whilst the whole ensemble were magnificent, so stunning in their portrayals of boys with the world at their feet, both Mr. Elliot and Ms. Rose showed once more the importance of being able to carry the words of adult wisdom in such young and intelligent dramatic minds.     

With some very stiff competition from other L.U.D.S performances over the years including the aforementioned Fanny and Faggot, the exquisite Still Life and last week’s Oedipus Rex, it would take genius to top any of them but The History Boys is a remarkable and outstanding piece of theatre and fully deserving the of the best play put on by L.U.D.S.

Ian D. Hall