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.
Much of the play is based around Alan Bennett’s own experiences in the sixth form, which were in the 1950s. So although the play is set in the 1980s, the pop culture references, for example the films, are all from the 1940s and 50s. The play has been criticised for its anachronismThings that are placed in the wrong time period.. It is also unlikely that a grammar school in the 1980s would never have sent students to Oxbridge before. These detract from the realism of the play, but not from its themes.