The History Boys is a play written by Alan Bennett. It was first performed in 2004, at the National Theatre in London. It was also made into a successful film.
Hector’s classroom door is locked and when someone tries it from the outside, Hector uses it to challenge the boys to remember knocks on the door that occur in literature. The boys play their favourite game with Hector: identifying the play or film that the boys are acting out.
Rudge is not as clever as the other boys, but he works hard and can tell Mrs Lintott a lot of what Irwin has told them – she thinks it’s quite odd, like the fact that he has suggested the Carry On films would be a good thing to discuss at interview.
Irwin tells them that Henry VIII will teach them everything about any period in history. He also suggests that their vast stock of quotations will be useful in essays – a suggestion which the boys reject with horror.