a surprising history boys fact
I just finished reading a book of letters from the National Theatre archives (Dramatic Exchanges: The Lives and Letters of the National Theatre, edited by Daniel Rosenthal), which I found out about via the NT podcast, on which actors did a dramatic reading of some of the letters in the book. The section on the "Nick Hytner years" is relatively short, possibly because Hytner recently released a memoir of his time at the National, but there were a couple of letters from Alan Bennett about The History Boys - and a photograph of the cast listing from the first reading, which is where I "discovered" that Jamie Parker originally read for Rudge! (I don't want to go so far as to say that this was never mentioned in any of the interviews I've read with Jamie over the years, or on the DVD special features - or possibly even in Hytner's memoir - but if so, it didn't sink in.) The mind boggles, a bit.
(Also, Ben Whishaw read for Scripps???)
(Also, Ben Whishaw read for Scripps???)