In 'The History Boys,' Lessons in Storytelling

School might be out for the summer, but not at Elden Street Players, which has mounted an energetic production of English playwright Alan Bennett's much-honored but thematically muddled "The History Boys."

Perhaps director Michael Kharfen's most vibrant success here is how he has summoned up and expertly channeled the roiling vigor of male adolescence into mostly compelling storytelling that brings the play's better premises into sharp relief.

At its best, "The History Boys," which is set in an undistinguished English boys school in the mid-1980s, is a thought-provoking and compelling study of competing values in education and the shaping of young minds. If Bennett had left it at that and stayed focused on the head, he'd have produced a thematically taut treatise. But he smudges his storytelling with a gratuitous sexual subplot that adds nothing relevant and compromises a main character.

This production is also weakened by the failure of the lead actor to fully inhabit his role, throwing off the balance between two teaching competitors. Fortunately, there is enough that's thematically fresh, and the other performances are quite compelling. The result remains a pleasurable, if diluted, experience.

A class of boys at a second-tier school is preparing for the Oxford entrance examinations. Eccentric, aging history teacher Hector (Don Petersen) is a maverick, employing unconventional teaching methods. He believes in learning for the sake of knowledge alone.

But the headmaster (John Barclay Burns) wants to end his school's failure to get its students into top-tier universities. So he brings in a young educator who is more tactician than teacher. Irwin (Hans Dettmar) focuses on finding unusual ways to achieve high test scores. Thus, there's a battle for the hearts and minds of students.

Petersen shrinks where he should be bold, so Hector never seems to be the merry ringleader of his band of boys, as the play demands. His pale portrait undermines the intellectual duel, allowing Dettmar, who provides an unusually nuanced performance as Irwin, to overpower Hector. Dettmar's Irwin is no villain, as has been seen elsewhere. His empathetic rendering of the character provides unexpected intellectual heft that compensates for Petersen's bland work.

The eight young men who play the students are a finely tuned and appealing ensemble, with standout work evident in the important roles. Miles Butler is especially vivid as the vulnerable misfit Posner. Brian Garrison adds grit and depth to the swaggering, would-be lothario Dakin. As Mrs. Lintott, Jane MacFarlane offers withering commentary in a wonderfully dry tone.

This production is scaled back, as Kharfen has eschewed some of the play's usual technical elements, including video montages. That's okay, but Grant Kevin Lane's dreary set backdrops seem to resemble the inside of packing crates more than a boys school. Is there a message there about seeing the students as commodities to be shipped off to college, or is it just poor design and execution? Maybe there are always two "schools of thought."

"The History Boys" continues through June 27, performed by Elden Street Players at Industrial Strength Theater, 269 Sunset Park Dr., Herndon. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sunday and 8 p.m. next Thursday. For reservations, call 703-481-5930. For tickets and information, visit http://www.eldenstreetplayers.org.