A lesson in humanity

Three years have passed since Alan Bennett's deliciously clever The History Boys was performed at the National Theatre. Since then, Bennett's boys have amassed British gongs, international tours, a film, and an incredible six Tonys under their trouser belts.

In rivalling Arthur Miller's Death of A Salesman as the only straight play to win six Tonys, The History Boys have made theatrical history of their own. And, happily, there's another chance to see them in London until April.

Bennett's story charts a life-changing spell in the lives of eight sixth-form boys grappling with growing up, Oxbridge entrance exams, and Hector, a passionate teacher at odds with modern education in a school in the middle of the grasping, Thatcherite 1980s.

It's very English, very eccentric - and Hector just so happens to fumble the trousers of his students. But that didn't stop even the Broadway critics eulogising it. 'It reaches out to everyone,' says Steven Webb, who will be reprising his role as Posner, the boy grappling with his homosexuality but who is, in the end, the only one largely ignored by Hector's roaming hands.

'Everyone just seems to connect with it. In post-show discussions one gentleman told us, "this play is completely reminiscent of my school days in the 1950s.'' Then a 25-year-old girl said, "I've just graduated from Cambridge, and this play resembles my last five years.'''

London audiences won't recognise Webb from the original cast posters or the film; he toured with the play in 2005 and 2006. 'It's an honour really,' he decides, on taking on a character so formidably forged by Tony-nominee Samuel Barnett, first at the National and then on film. 'But I feel the pressure because it's had such worldwide success.'

There's plenty of bittersweet fun to be had in The History Boys' adolescent urges, its smart-alec academic drive and the conflicting teaching methods dogging a school striving to increase its Oxbridge uptake. But it's the treatment of the foolhardy Hector - whose abuse of his position is the sting in the play's tail - that lodges in the memory.

'Yes, what he does is wrong,' admits Webb. 'But he is a wonderful person and a wonderful teacher. It's refreshing to see a character like Hector portrayed as a human'.

Webb was at stage school in London from the age of eight to 16 - a far cry from the play's academic world. But despite not initially connecting with its humour, he's now bowled over by Bennett's masterpiece. 'I fall in love with it every night,' he confesses. 'It's a phenomenally written play.'

Tonight until April 14, Wyndham's Theatre, Charing Cross Road WC2, Mon to Sat 7.30pm, Thu and Sat mats 2.30pm, £10 to £45 (limited availability). Tel: 0870 950 0920. Tube: Charing Cross

The History Boys
Wyndham's Theatre
Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0DA