What bothers me about The History Boys- Page 2
What bothers me about The History Boys
#25re: What bothers me about The History Boys
Posted: 5/4/06 at 4:37pmI can't tell you how odd it feels to see you having this discussion. I've struggled with all these thoughts since I saw the play two years ago, and my feelings for it are way too complex and confusing to articulate in words. It's painful and unfair, but I've made my peace with it. I really love this play, it just feels bizarre to see people having these thoughts for the first time after I'd wrestled with them for ages and then put them aside and...here they are again. :) Sorry, this was kinda OT.
Smaxie
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/26/05
#26re: What bothers me about The History Boys
Posted: 5/4/06 at 5:31pmI also have to disagree that the ending comes out of left field. The ending is set up several times with the flash forwards of Irwin in a wheelchair.
Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.
#27re: What bothers me about The History Boys
Posted: 5/5/06 at 1:25am
Just because it's foreshadowed doesn't mean it's not simply tacked on to provide a big finale. I'm not the only one who feels so, to quote Michael Feingold:
"The improbable catastrophe that concludes the play is cooked up out of Hector's kink, in a manner altogether too dramaturgically convenient, and the final irony—a surprising number of the boys get into Oxford or Cambridge but go on to lead less than stellar lives—etc..."
It's a dramatically convenient ending. Although I liked the rest of the play a good deal more than Mr. Feingold seems to have.
yr ronin,
joey
joey
#28re: What bothers me about The History Boys
Posted: 5/5/06 at 8:52am
Of course, I just redug this thread up, and now I have to leave for work! Roninjoey, I agree that the fates of the other 7 boys are fairly realistic (as far as their all being fairly middle of the road; for the most part not remarkable, but also not anything particularly terrible in their future lives either). I guess I just didn't have as much of a problem with Posner's as you did. I definitely had a pang of "oh no" when it was revealed what became of him, but there was also something about him throughout, where I could totally see him just kind of slipping through the cracks. The beginning of Act II certainly sets us up to recognize that things go terribly wrong for him at some point.
Ugh! Gotta go. This obviously didn't clear things up.
But when did New Hampshire become--Such a backward wasteland of seatbelt hating crazies?...I mean, only 40 people actually live there. The others are just visitors who come for the tax-free liquor and three inches of novelty coastline. John Hodgeman on The Daily Show (1-30-07)
#29re: What bothers me about The History Boys
Posted: 5/5/06 at 5:06pm
I just want to add some biographical information- Alan Bennett is openly gay and he does have a long-term partner...so unlike the character Posner, he didn't grow old alone.
"It does what a musical is supposed to do; it takes you to another world. And it gives you a little tune to carry in your head. Something to take you away from the dreary horrors of the real world. A little something for when you're feeling blue. You know?"
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