Nicholas Hytner has won the Olivier Award for Best Director for his work on the phenomenally successful The History Boys. Hytner directed Alan Bennett’s wryly feisty comic drama about the internal struggles, educational ideals and impromptu affairs bubbling around in a 1980s grammar school in Sheffield. The History Boys opened at the National’s Lyttelton theatre in May 2004 as one of the flagship shows in Hytner’s second year as artistic director.
The History Boys draws on Alan Bennett’s own experiences as a school teacher in the 1960s as it creates a microcosmic society where old values of creativity and spontaneity clash with modern standards of examinations and league tables. Richard Griffiths stars as the vibrantly eccentric English teacher, Hector, who teaches his boys French by allowing them to improvise scenes in a brothel. Griffiths has already won Best Actor in this evening’s awards.
Nicholas Hytner took over as Artistic Director of the National in 2003, one highlight in a successful and eclectic directing career which includes dramas in Manchester, operas in Kent and blockbusting films such as The Madness Of George III, The Crucible and The Object Of My Affection. Nicholas Hytner’s previous Olivier glory came back in 1993 when he won the Best Director of a Musical Award for Carousel at the National.
