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Alan Bennett - The History Boys

London Review Bookshop Podcast

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The Importance of Names in Plays

I'm temperamentally sympathetic more to Hector the charismatic teacher but at the same time if you're doing a play you just part of you in everybody really. I didn't like the character the start of rehearsals the Erwin the the thrusting of mine now they've seen where he talks to the other teacher about the boys and I just find that unbearable. No I had to seem to be the name of a slightly larger than life character but we haven't cast Richard Griffiths who's considerably larger than life at that point. There was a dominant somebody called Michael Owen who became a dominant the University of Ken but he didn't based on him so finding names that fit characters is a great problem

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