20 years ago, Alan Bennett’s The History Boys premiered at the National Theatre in London and immediately became a modern classic.

Since then, it’s won 30 major theatre awards, had West End and Broadway runs, national and international productions, been adapted into a film and was voted The Nation’s Favourite Play. In short, The History Boys made history.

To mark the 20th anniversary, the staff and students at Cutlers’ Grammar School are back in a vibrant new revival by Seán Linnen that asks - what is the purpose of education? And who is it for?

A-Level results day. 1980s Sheffield. Eight unruly teenagers burst into adulthood with the best grades their school has ever seen, but their sights are set on something higher: to study at the most famous academic institutions in the world - Oxford and Cambridge. But their teachers can’t agree 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.

The History Boys follows this 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.

Photography by Marc Brenner.