Binary - dichotomy

THE HISTORY BOYS'
by CJ Johnson

Los Angeles Journal

My nose always wrinkles slightly at the word “dichotomy.” It’s right up there with “existential” and spelling “oh” without the “h” and all those other words that are reminiscent of the de rigueur of a pretentious English essay. Having said that, however, The Centre Theatre Group’s new production of Alan Bennett’s Olivier and Tony Award Winning The History Boys is, in allrespects, a consummate dichotomy.
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Set in a boy’s Sixth Form Catholic College in Thatcherian England, The History Boys concerns the colorful, corpulent Hector (Dakin Matthews), an eccentric freewheeler of an English professor whose “subjunctive” approach to teaching (which often involves more song and play than writing essays) is based largely upon his distaste of exams, which he finds indecent, and a personal desire to make an impression on his students which will last their lifetime. His professional nemesis Irwin (Peter Paige) is, in addition to being Hector’s physical opposite, a history professor whose practical teaching methods focus sternly on the lip-service required to get his students to pass the Oxford and Cambridge entrance exams (as is the ultimate purpose of Sixth Form) by urging them to distance themselves from long held convictions; in Irwin’s classroom Stalin could well have been a good guy and the Holocaust can be spoken of with shocking informality.
Both sides present valid arguments. It’s this (here’s that word again) dichotomy that makes The History Boys what other Professor/Pupil vehicles wish they could be: profound.