The History Boys review – lively revival remains relaxed about sexual harassment

For all its vitality, the production can’t temper the play’s blase attitude toward sexual harassment and teacher-pupil intimacy. Bennett stacks the deck in favour of Hector, played here by Simon Rouse, who is tweedy rather than seedy. His pupils joke about being “scarred for life”, while the headteacher who pressures him to resign is a vile homophobe. The only homophobe in the entire school, in fact. Despite this being set in 1983, none of the boys even flinch at Posner, let alone taunt him. Then again, the absence of any pop-culture references more recent than Brief Encounter proves that Bennett never bothered to think himself into the era.