What: The History Boys
Where and when: Maidment Theatre, October 8-24
As a young man from the Whakaangiangi Valley on the East Cape, actor George Henare travelled to Auckland to train as a teacher but chose life in front of an audience rather than in front of a blackboard.
Now Henare can consider what life in the classroom may have been like as he takes on one of the most memorable teacher characters in contemporary theatre. He stars in Alan Bennett's The History Boys as eccentric English teacher Hector whose unconventional methods are designed to prepare students for life, not simply exams.
Set in an archetypical English boys' grammar school in 1983, the land of Margaret Thatcher and the burgeoning free market, The History Boys focuses on eight intellectually precocious students preparing for entrance exams to Oxford and Cambridge universities.
While the hormonally charged adolescents are more concerned with sex, friendships and sport, their principal (played by Bruce Phillips) is obsessed with school rankings and exam results.
He hires an astute young teacher, Irwin (Andrew Ford), to coach the boisterous bunch to the marks he wants. But Irwin's teaching methods, premised around the utilitarian notion of education as a means to qualifications and employment, are sharply at odds with Hector's idealistic view of learning for the pleasure of it.
Thus the boys find themselves caught up in an ideological battle for their hearts and minds - and a place at a top university whether they want it or not. The voice of moderation and reason is from female history teacher Dorothy Lintott (Annie Whittle) whose teaching methods fall somewhere between the two male protagonists.
The stage show has played to sellout houses all over the world, including in Wellington, but there has never been a professional production of the play in Auckland before.
Director Jesse Peach first read the script while on a working holiday in Japan, a world away from the play's English setting. He was captivated by the richness of the dialogue, the philosophical debate at the play's heart and that it had strong roles for young male actors.
Shortland Street star Harry McNaughton plays one of the boys, the cocky and academically gifted Dakin, who's also the Lothario of the piece. McNaughton agrees it is very different to his asexual television character, receptionist Gerald Tippett.
"I'm going to have two weeks of doing my high voice during the day and my low one at night," he jokes. "I think Dakin is an awesome character, he's so confident and I have not really played anyone quite like him before."
McNaughton is still immersed in the education system, doing part-time studies in English and philosophy at Auckland University - although he took this semester off to concentrate on the play.
"I love learning. I loved school. I really was a bit of a geek, not like Dakin."
McNaughton believes local audiences will relate to the play's universal themes of friendship, the relationship between teachers and pupils, and reminisce about their own school days. Peach agrees, saying The History Boys is relevant to New Zealand where the education system is increasingly premised around national standards, testing and obtaining qualifications.
The role of Hector was made famous by British actor Richard Griffiths, who portrayed the maverick teacher on stage and screen, winning numerous prestigious awards.
Henare acknowledges he has big shoes to fill, but intends to play a more mobile Hector who indulges in the theatricality of his job as a teacher. He suspects had he continued teaching, rather than auditioning for the New Zealand Opera Company and launching a stage career, he would have taught like Hector.
"I think I would have started out like Tottie [the boys' nickname for Miss Lintott] teaching the facts but ended up like Hector wanting to know what lies beneath the facts and interrogating everything.
"When I first got the script, I thought, 'This looks interesting', and then I had a more thorough read and thought, 'I really want to do this because I haven't done a play like this for quite some time.' Every scene has a quotable line in it - like 'education is the enemy of education'."
Crammed as it is with literary and historical references, Peach insisted the actors knew their words before rehearsals started. He said there was too much to be done for line-learning to take place then.
Todd Emerson, who plays the student Scripps, agrees that The History Boys requires its actors to be precise and right on cue. He has done more research for this play than any other he has worked on. That research has involved going to church, attending a poetry workshop with Sam Hunt and spending two days at Avondale College taking history and English lessons.
The cast agree that learning the background to the play's many historical and literary references has deepened their understanding and should enhance performances.
The History Boys' cast also features Milo Cawthorne, Elliot Christensen-Yule, Paora Durie, Nic Sampson, Sam Berkley and Chris Tempest.
