The History Boys
E772910
The History Boys is a critically acclaimed stage play by Alan Bennett that follows a group of British schoolboys preparing for university entrance exams, exploring themes of education, history, and sexuality with wit and poignancy.
All labels observed (5)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The History Boys canonical | 17 |
| The History Boys (stage production) | 6 |
| The History Boys (stage play, 2004) | 2 |
| The History Boys (stage play) | 1 |
| stage play The History Boys (2004) | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T9016892 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The History Boys Context triple: [Alan Bennett, notableWork, The History Boys]
-
A.
The History Boys (film)
The History Boys is a 2006 British comedy-drama film adaptation of Alan Bennett’s acclaimed stage play, following a group of gifted schoolboys preparing for university entrance exams under the guidance of eccentric teachers.
-
B.
Rudge in The History Boys
Rudge in *The History Boys* is a seemingly slow-witted but quietly perceptive and straightforward student whose unexpected academic success challenges others’ assumptions about intelligence and merit.
-
C.
The History Boys (Broadway production)
The History Boys (Broadway production) is the acclaimed New York staging of Alan Bennett’s award-winning play about a group of British schoolboys preparing for university entrance exams, noted for its sharp wit and exploration of education, sexuality, and history.
-
D.
Akhtar in The History Boys
Akhtar in *The History Boys* is a bright, good-humored student in Alan Bennett’s play and film, known for his wit, warmth, and participation in the ensemble of grammar-school boys preparing for Oxbridge entrance exams.
-
E.
An Education
An Education is a 2009 coming-of-age drama film about a bright schoolgirl in 1960s London whose life is transformed by a relationship with an older man, adapted from Lynn Barber’s memoir.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The History Boys Target entity description: The History Boys is a critically acclaimed stage play by Alan Bennett that follows a group of British schoolboys preparing for university entrance exams, exploring themes of education, history, and sexuality with wit and poignancy.
-
A.
The History Boys (film)
The History Boys is a 2006 British comedy-drama film adaptation of Alan Bennett’s acclaimed stage play, following a group of gifted schoolboys preparing for university entrance exams under the guidance of eccentric teachers.
-
B.
Rudge in The History Boys
Rudge in *The History Boys* is a seemingly slow-witted but quietly perceptive and straightforward student whose unexpected academic success challenges others’ assumptions about intelligence and merit.
-
C.
The History Boys (Broadway production)
The History Boys (Broadway production) is the acclaimed New York staging of Alan Bennett’s award-winning play about a group of British schoolboys preparing for university entrance exams, noted for its sharp wit and exploration of education, sexuality, and history.
-
D.
Akhtar in The History Boys
Akhtar in *The History Boys* is a bright, good-humored student in Alan Bennett’s play and film, known for his wit, warmth, and participation in the ensemble of grammar-school boys preparing for Oxbridge entrance exams.
-
E.
An Education
An Education is a 2009 coming-of-age drama film about a bright schoolgirl in 1960s London whose life is transformed by a relationship with an older man, adapted from Lynn Barber’s memoir.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
play
ⓘ
stage play ⓘ |
| adaptedInto | The History Boys (film) NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| awardReceived |
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play NERFINISHED ⓘ New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play NERFINISHED ⓘ Tony Award for Best Play NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| criticalReception | critically acclaimed ⓘ |
| directorOfOriginalProduction | Nicholas Hytner NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| filmAdaptationReleaseYear | 2006 ⓘ |
| firstPublishedYear | 2004 ⓘ |
| follows |
group of British schoolboys
ⓘ
preparation for university entrance exams ⓘ |
| genre |
comedy-drama
ⓘ
coming-of-age ⓘ drama ⓘ |
| hasCharacter |
Dakin
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Headmaster ⓘ Hector NERFINISHED ⓘ Irwin NERFINISHED ⓘ Mrs Lintott NERFINISHED ⓘ Posner NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasTouringProduction |
Broadway
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
West End NERFINISHED ⓘ international tours ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
education
ⓘ
history ⓘ sexuality ⓘ |
| notableTheme |
class and social mobility
ⓘ
ethics of teaching ⓘ homosexual desire ⓘ tension between different educational philosophies ⓘ use and abuse of history ⓘ |
| originalLanguage | English ⓘ |
| premieredAt | Royal National Theatre NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| premiereDate | 2004 ⓘ |
| premieredInCity | London NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| producer | National Theatre NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| publisherOfPlayText | Faber and Faber NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| screenplayBy | Alan Bennett NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| settingLocation |
Northern England
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Sheffield NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| settingPeriod | 1980s ⓘ |
| writer | Alan Bennett NERFINISHED ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The History Boys Description of subject: The History Boys is a critically acclaimed stage play by Alan Bennett that follows a group of British schoolboys preparing for university entrance exams, exploring themes of education, history, and sexuality with wit and poignancy.
Referenced by (27)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Frances de la Tour
subject surface form:
Frances de la Tour
this entity surface form:
The History Boys (stage production)
this entity surface form:
The History Boys (stage play)
this entity surface form:
The History Boys (stage production)
this entity surface form:
The History Boys (stage production)
this entity surface form:
The History Boys (stage production)
this entity surface form:
The History Boys (stage play, 2004)
subject surface form:
Rudge
subject surface form:
Rudge
this entity surface form:
The History Boys (stage play, 2004)
subject surface form:
Akhtar
subject surface form:
Akhtar
this entity surface form:
stage play The History Boys (2004)
this entity surface form:
The History Boys (stage production)
this entity surface form:
The History Boys (stage production)