Characters
- Headmaster (Felix Armstrong) - Headmaster
- Douglas Hector - English/General Studies teacher
- Irwin - History teacher; brought in as a special coach
- Mrs Dorothy Lintott - History teacher
- Akthar - Pupil; of Asian ancestry, Muslim
- Crowther - Pupil; does acting as a hobby
- Stuart Dakin - Pupil; handsome, object of Posner's and Irwin's affection
- James Lockwood - Pupil; strong opinions
- David Posner - Pupil; youngest, gay and Jewish
- Rudge - Pupil; better known for athletic skills than for intelligence
- Donald Scripps - Pupil; Anglican, plays piano
- Timms - Pupil; joker, overweight
- Director on Irwin's television programme (a small role)
Irwin is said to be modelled after Niall Ferguson.
The play includes several non-speaking roles:
- Make-Up Woman, Production team - on Irwin's television show
- Three or four unidentified MPs - spoken to by Irwin in opening scene
- Other male pupils (optional, can help with scene changes and/or play piano if the actor cast as Scripps cannot)
- Fiona - Headmaster's secretary; object of Dakin's affection/lust. Does not appear on stage in the published text, but was seen in filmed projections featuring Rio by Duran Duran during the original production.
Read more about this topic: The History Boys
Famous quotes containing the word characters:
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which stands continually open to our gaze, but it cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and interpret the characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it.”
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—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)