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Writer: Sebastian Barry Director: Blanche McIntyre Reviewer: Ian Foster The Public Reviews Rating: Perhaps better known as a novelist (A Long Long Way and The Secret Scripture have both been Booker-nominated), Sebastian Barry’s 1995 play The Only True History of Lizzie Finn receives its UK premiere here at the Southwark Playhouse in a production by award-winning director Blanche [...]

Writer: Alan Bennett Director: Christopher Luscombe Reviewer: Catherine Love The Public Reviews Rating: Is all knowledge, as A. E. Housman posits, ‘precious whether or not it serves the slightest human use’? This is just one of the questions posed by Alan Bennett’s phenomenally successful play The History Boys, returning this year for another national tour. In the critically [...]

Writer: Alan Bennett Director: Christopher Luscombe Reviewer: Angela Wilson The Public Reviews Rating: Premiered at the National Theatre in May 2004, The History Boys is Alan Bennett’s most successful stage work, with award-winning runs in both London and New York, and a film adaptation. The Theatre Royal Bath/West Yorkshire Playhouse production is making another extensive national tour, and [...]

Writer: Alan Bennett Director: Christopher Luscombe Reviewer: Bill Avenell The Public Reviews Rating: It seemed appropriate that as we drove to the Festival Theatre last night the News should be full of the EMA and the National Curriculum debates. Alan Bennett’s renowned play about the value of education and the role of the charismatic teacher is indeed food [...]

Writer: Alan Bennett Director: Christopher Luscombe Reviewer: Mary Tapper The Public Reviews Rating: Alan Bennett once said “I write plays about things I can’t resolve in my mind. I try to root things out” and, with its debate about the nature of education and relationships, this play certainly delivers! The play is set in the 1980s and follows [...]

Writer: Alan Bennett Director: Christopher Luscombe Reviewer: Maggie Constable The Public Reviews Rating: Having recently seen “Enjoy” by the same dramatist at this theatre (and I certainly did enjoy it) and having watched the excellent film of the same name last year, I was not sure how I would feel about this Bennett production. HOWEVER, Milton Keynes Theatre [...]

Writer: Alan Bennett. Director: Christopher Luscombe. Reviewer: Elizabeth Vile The Public Reviews Rating: Set in a Sheffield Grammar School during the 1980′s Alan Bennett’s play The History Boys concentrates on a class of bright, adolescent boys who are hoping to go to Oxbridge. Surrounding these students are three very different teachers who are educating the students in the [...]

Writer: Alan Bennett Director: Christopher Luscombe Reviewer: John Roberts The Public Reviews Rating: Alan Bennett’s, The History Boys caused a critical storm when it first premiered at The National Theatre in 2004, with two subsequent tours and two reasonably large stints in the West End and on Broadway, not to mention the film adaptation, one can’t help feeling [...]