Courtyard Senior Youth Theatre in The History Boys

This week, The Courtyard’s Senior Youth Theatre is presenting The History Boys, its first production for four years and a great choice for their return to the venue’s main stage.

The story of eight boys in training for an attempt on the educational peaks of Oxford and Cambridge, is in truth the story of a battle for the boys’ hearts and minds waged between their English teacher, Hector and Irwin, a young Oxford graduate, recruited by the head to frogmarch the boys to success, and all of it happening amidst a maelstrom of sexual undercurrents and tension.

Hector is dismissive of the drive towards academia, his classes a near-anarchic mix of poetry learned by heart, and histrionic reconstructions of movie scenes as the boys attempt to outwit him for cash. Meanwhile Irwin focuses on technique, encouraging the boys in clever linguistic tricks to dazzle their examiners, an approach derided by Hector.

As the boys, Dan Pegler as Dakin, Will Moore as Scripps and Jack Spreckley as Rudge, Justin Cooper (Akthar), Chris Pigott (Crowther), Dean Symonds (Lockwood), Kieran Dowen (Timms) and Alexander Shreenan as the lovelorn Posner, gave remarkably assured and well-judged performances, their energy levels and enthusiasm perfectly pitched, and Joe Standell, despite his own lack of years, was notable for the realism he brought to his role as headmaster, and Tabitha Porter gave an assured performance as Mrs Lintott on Thursday evening.

Their closeness in age to the parts they were playing undoubtedly gave the boys an advantage - though it’s no mean feat to play yourself with conviction - an advantage which Oli Curry didn’t have as Hector, a central role and one which calls for a mix of the brash and the vulnerable, and it did occasionally feel as if he could have done with a little more of the confidence that playing the same age gave his fellow actors.

The History Boys runs at The Courtyard until Saturday, July 31. To book, call the box office on 01432 340555.