20th Anniversary production of Alan Bennett’s famous play The History Boys opens at the Theatre Royal Bath ahead of UK tour

The 20^th Anniversary production of Alan Bennett’s modern classic The History Boys opens at Theatre Royal Bath appearing from Thursday 22 to Saturday 31 August, prior to a national tour. The cast includes Simon Rouse (The Bill, Operation Mincemeat, Broadchurch), Gillian Bevan (The Windsors, Teachers, Into The Woods), Milo Twomey (Safe, My Spy Family, Silent Witness), and Bill Milner (The Serpent Queen, Is Anybody There?, Son of Rambo), directed by Seán Linnen.

A-Level results day. Cutler’s Grammar School. 1980s Sheffield. Eight unruly teenagers burst into adulthood with the best grades their school has ever seen and their sights set on something higher: to study at the most famous academic institutions in the world - Oxford and Cambridge. But their teachers can’t agree on how best to tutor them. There’s Hector, the maverick English teacher who believes in culture for its own sake; Irwin - the shrewd supply teacher full of soundbites; Felix - the headmaster obsessed with league tables, and Mrs Lintott - the History teacher who thinks her colleagues are all fools.

Winner of thirty major awards and voted The Nation’s Favourite Play in 2013, The History Boys follows a bright bunch of boys in pursuit of sex, sport and a place at university, lifting the lid on staffroom rivalries and the anarchy of adolescence.

Simon Rouse, who plays the role of Hector, is best-known on television as DCI Jack Meadows in over 800 episodes of ITV’s The Bill. His many screen credits also include Moving On, Doctors, The Dumping Ground, Coronation Street, Broadchurch, Minder, Casualty, Boon, Robin of Sherwood and Juliet Bravo. On stage, his West End credits include Noises Off, The Dresser, When We Are Married, The Changing Room and Sweet Bird of Youth, which toured to Bath in 1985. He has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company and worked with London’s Tricycle and Royal Court Theatres. Simon last appeared at the Theatre Royal Bath in 2014, when he played the role of Gerald in the UK tour of The Full Monty.

Gillian Bevan, who plays Mrs Lintott, performed at the Theatre Royal previously in 2022 in Terry Gilliam and Leah Hausman’s spectacular staging of Stephen Sondheim’s Into The Woods. Gillian won the Olivier Audience Award for her role as Mrs Wilkinson in Billy Elliot in the West End. As well as performing in many productions for the RSC and in the West End, she was part of Alan Ayckbourn’s company and performed in several repertory companies, including at the Bristol Old Vic. On television, Gillian has played Theresa May in The Windsors; Head Teacher Clare Hunter in all four series of Teachers; Gina Hope in Holby City; Detective Superintendent Rose Penfold in The Chief, and appeared in many guest roles including in Sister Boniface Mysteries.

Milo Twomey, who appears as Headmaster, has performed on stage and screen for over twenty-five years with recent roles including King Roderick in Damsel, a feature film for Netflix, and guest roles in Four Lives for BBC and The Thief, His Wife and The Canoe for ITV. He also played regular roles in A Discovery of Witches for Sky, and in Free Rein and Safe, both for Netflix. On stage, Milo played Mr. Banks in Cameron Mackintosh’s Mary Poppins and Alec in 

Kneehigh’s Olivier and Tony-Award nominated production of Brief Encounter, which toured in America and visited Bath in 2009. Previously at the Theatre Royal, he has also performed in Macbeth in 1999 and Three Sisters in 2002.   

Bill Milner, who plays Irwin, last performed at the Theatre Royal Bath in Another Country in 2013. His theatre credits also include The Antipodes at the National Theatre, Harold & Maude at Charing Cross Theatre and The Distance at the Orange Tree Theatre. His film credits include the lead role of Will Proudfoot in Son of Rambow; Edward in Is Anybody There? alongside Michael Caine; Baxter Dury in Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll; Ben in Mixtape; a Private in Dunkirk, and Clive Epstein in Midas Man. His television roles include King Charles IX in The Serpent Queen, Tonny Ahlers in A Small Light, Si in The Flatshare, Adam Matthews in The 7.39, Maurice Stafford in The Secret Of Crickley Hall, and Peter Carter in My Boy Jack. Bill has also appeared in music videos for the bands Tame Impala and Noah and the Whale.

The students are played by Tashinga Bepete as Crowther; Archie Christoph-Allen as Dakin; Lewis Cornay as Posner; Ned Costello as Rudge; Teddy Hinde, who grew up in Somerset, as Timms; Curtis Kemlo as Lockwood; Mahesh Parmar as Akthar; Yazdan Qafouri as Scripps, with Zrey Sholapurkar, Morgan Phillips, Jolyon Young, Rowena Bentley, Elliot Parchment-Morrison and Rob Astillo in the ensemble.

The creative team includes Director Seán Linnen, Set and Costume Designer Grace Smart, Lighting Designer Ryan Day, Composer, Arranger and Sound Designer Russell Ditchfield, Movement Director Chi-San Howard and Musical Director Eamonn O’Dwyer.

The 2024 tour of The History Boys, produced by Theatre Royal Bath Productions, opens in Bath before playing theatres in Truro, Nottingham, Plymouth, Cheltenham, Cambridge, Coventry, Malvern, Aberdeen and Richmond.

The History Boys is the winner of over thirty major international awards. The play originally opened at the National Theatre in 2004, followed by an international tour and film adaptation released in 2006, which starred the late Richard Griffiths and launched the careers of James Corden, Dominic Cooper, Russell Tovey and Jamie Parker among others.

Alan Bennett has been a household name in British theatre for more than fifty years. He has received numerous awards for his work including two BAFTA Awards, four Olivier Awards and two Tony Awards. His series of Talking Heads enjoyed enormous popular success, and his hit drama The Madness of George III was made into a double BAFTA Award-winning and Oscar nominated film, The Madness of King George, in 1994. His many impeccably-observed plays also include The Lady in the Van, Single Spies, Enjoy, Forty Years On and Habeas Corpus. New plays written by Alan Bennett, which have opened at the National Theatre during the past 15 years, include The Habit of Art in 2009, People in 2012, and Cocktail Sticks, which also premiered in 2012 in a double bill with the monologue Hymn. His 2018 play Allelujah!, which opened at London’s Bridge Theatre, was adapted into a film in 2022 starring Jennifer Saunders, Judi Dench, Derek Jacobi and Russell Tovey, one of the original History Boys.