Boys of History and Our Release Day, The Musical

 Review: Boys of History and Our Release Day, The Musical, Pick Me Up Theater, Joseph Rowntree Theater

EDUCATION, education, education, will remain one of the battlefields in the May general election. It has long been the subject of drama and literature and from Terence Rattigan's The Browning Version to John Godber's Teechers, Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickelby to Alan Bennett's Forty Years On.

Pick Me Up Theater Artistic Director Robert Readman has selected two northern theater productions, both set at wide schools but with different academic achievement levels. The children of Our Day Out of Willy Russell are from Mrs. Kay's Progress Class, "slow" children; Alan Bennett's highlights, The Boys of History are Hector's bursary class, trained for their Oxbridge exams. Yet in their hearts, the two are very different as two theater actors are eagerly writing about the educational opportunities available; in Russell's case, showing children the world beyond the classroom and the vicious voice of a borderline teacher; in Bennett's case, which illustrates the value of lessons for "short-term life", learned from the extraordinary lessons that go beyond acknowledging the lure of language and the love of literature. Our Day Out is the backbone of the youth theater but now the 1976 play is much better, more brilliant, transformed into a musical Russell, who re-edited the text and added songs and music he co-wrote with Bob Eaton in 2009. Those rhythmic songs play a wonderful role in Liverpool's natural humorous sound - just as The Scaffold and Ringo in his Beatles songs once did - while refining the path for this exciting clip as the class tour also makes trails from Alton Towers to the zoo , castle and sea in North Wales. As before, Readman has included terrifying characters, Mrs. Kay kind-hearted Jeanette Hunter fights Craig Kirby's team, oppressive Mr. Briggs, backed by Martyn Hunter bus driver who once saw Adam Sowter and Katie Glover's new teachers. Emily Belcher stands out as one silent, Amy; Carly flirting with Kiera Leaper is a hoodie, and Emma Moodie and Ruby Johnson's Bored Girls steal the show as usual.Barbara Chan's musical direction is a joy too. Both products make excellent use of Adam Moore Tech247's film speculation about the location, first arousing various Welsh sites, and then the black and white city center of Sheffield in 1983 by The History Boys, accompanied by Cabaret Voltaire's electronic music industry from . that time. Once again, with impressive performances, BBC Radio York presenters Neil Foster and Adam Tomlinson play a brilliant, intriguing Irwin and a less-thought-out principal, while former Bootham School head teacher Ian Small enjoys the role of Hector and Mrs. Barbara Johnson Lintott is as smart as the history teacher Mrs. Lintott. For the boys, Sam Baxter is the standout as the disruptive Posner, with George Stagnell's Dakin pulling out a star player in the second half and Sam Hird's Scripps also doing well. The task of integration between boys needs to be fast but individual performance is dynamic. History Boys and Our Day Out, The Musical, Pick Me Up Theater, Joseph Rowntree Theater, York; working until Saturday. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk