A GOOD story, like a good joke, can be valued in the number of its retellings.

In which case, The History Boys, now in its seventh or eighth carnation, can be hailed as one of the very best.

The original West End show in 2004 saw sell out crowds, with notable performances from James Corden, Richard Griffiths and Russel Tovey.

Franchised across the world then turned into a blockbuster movie, the 1980s Sheffield classroom is now back on tour, this time gracing the stage at Swindon’s Wyvern Theatre.

Writer Alan Bennett tells the story of a group of boys aspiring to pass their Oxbridge entrance exams, aspiring, too, to find welcoming young women.

The boys are taught English by the flamboyant Hector, played with aplomb by Richard Hope, a wordsmith with a fateful predilection for young boys.

Not wanting to offend their favourite teacher, the boys take Hector’s good-natured fondlings on his motorcycle as part and parcel of his character – although I did doubt whether this would have been written in the same way in our scandal-riven decade.

As the adolescents grapple with those problems that are unique to adolescents, Mark Field’s character Irwin is drafted in to coach the boys to educational success.

Hector and Irwin lock horns, not just on teaching style, but on the very purpose of education.

At some points the play represents a battle between the two sides of the brain: Hector’s free-thinking laissez faire right and Irwin’s logical left.

But this unfairly limits the scope of the play, which, for good reason, was once voted the nation’s favourite.

The History Boys is a play about the last throws of adolescence: the worries, the optimism and, of course, the friendships.

Geeky and underdeveloped Posner, played by Steven Roberts, and his antipodal character Dakin, played by Kedar Williams-Stirling, give the well-drilled cast a lift every time they speak.

The running theme of the play is sexual oppression, a theme that reaches a crescendo as the play draws to a close.

The role of women is also touched upon, briefly yet firmly, when foulmouthed teacher Mrs Lintott – for me the plays stand out performance – reminds the other teachers of the problems she faces as a history teacher.

“Can you think for a minute how dispiriting it is to teach five centuries of masculine ineptitude?” She asks. “History is women following behind with the bucket.”

And history, particularly its purpose, is constantly probed.

Irwin repeatedly tells the boys to “turn facts on their head”, to reinvent history and to think outside the box: a lesson for all of us it seems.

The cast, incidentally, is brilliant, and the real triumph of the play is that each of the 12 characters has an obvious personality.

A good story, like a good joke, can be valued in the number of its retellings, and The History Boys will be retold and retold and retold.

 

The History Boys will be at the Wyvern Theatre until Saturday, June 6.