Everyman Theatre's The History Boys by Alan Bennett at the Courtyard Studio

Is education all about ticking boxes, passing exams and getting ahead in life or is learning important for its own sake? That's one of the central issues explored in Alan Bennett's The History Boys, being produced by Everyman Theatre at the Courtyard Studio from September 2.

Producer and co-director Jarrad West says he thinks Bennett's award-winning 2006 play examines both sides of the question - and much more besides - as it tells of a class of British teenage boys at Cutlers' Grammar School in the 1980s being prepared for the Oxford and Cambridge entrance exams by two teachers who represent the different attitudes to education. But it's far from being a simple treatise on learning; there are many emotional undercurrents to the play as it depicts the boys and their teachers and the various journeys - educational, emotional and psychological - undertaken by all of them

"It's hilarious and bittersweet and moving," West says.

"It won the Tony for best play and the Olivier for best play for a reason."

He's co-directing the play with Chris Zuber, a drama teacher at Dickson College making his directorial debut outside school.

In The History Boys, the grammar-school boys are under the tutelage of the veteran Mr Hector (played by Chris Baldock) who loves poetry and the pop culture of his day and encourages the boys to memorise pieces of poetry and literature and brings energy and enthusiasm to the classroom.

Zuber says, "He's less about exams and more about what they will remember later on in life."

He's also a closeted gay man whose relationships with the boys can sometimes become more intimate than is appropriate.

Brought in by the headmaster (Geoffrey Borny) to improve the school's academic performance is another, younger master. Mr Irwin (Hayden Splitt) says Zuber, is Oxbridge-educated with a more cynical "truth is what you make it" attitude towards education. But he will turn out to have something in common with Hector.

Also tutoring the boys is Mrs Lintott (Alice Ferguson) but her more facts-driven approach doesn't have quite the same impact as her colleagues.

Zuber had seen the movie version of The History Boys before taking on the play and says, "One of the great things about it is it does capture the energy in the classroom."

In his ninth year at Dickson College, he's familiar with both the ups and downs of teaching and the conversations in the staff room and he says The History Boys evokes both well. He's even working with a couple of his former students, Henry Strand and Cole Hilder, among the "boys".

"Most of them are quite recently out of school."

Strand, 18, plays Posner, who's the youngest of the boys, Jewish and in love with a classmate.

"He has trouble expressing his true feelings," Strand says.

"He's beginning to discover himself in school but he has trouble truly working out who he is, though he does get some understanding of who he is."

Strand says that's one of the themes of the play: the characters are not only learning academically but learning who they are, preparing themselves for life as well as for further education.

He says The History Boys is :"about how different people in different circumstances understand knowledge and education nad how they deal with teaching.

"A really important point is that the boys are still young and still discovering themselves."

What happens during the course of the play can have significant consequences for them - and for the adults, too.

Having known Zuber he enjoyed working with him again but said having the two directors worked well: "They shared a vision though they have different styles."

Zuber, he said, worked in broader strokes while West focused on finer details. As for his young castmates, though he had only known a few of them beforehand, they had bonded well during the rehearsal process.

"We're great friends now."

One of the most daunting aspects of the play for Strand was having to sing solo - Posner performs the Rodgers and Hart standard Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered in a way that signals his crush on fellow student Dakin (Patrick Mandziy). But his feelings are not requited as Dakin is looking elsewhere for his pleasures.

"He's a cocky schoolboy," Mandziy, 23, says of his character.

"He's a nasty piece of work."

Dakin, he says, is a seducer and manipulator who uses people to get what he wants though at times he does "walk the line between villainous and heroic" in a Machiavellian sort of way.

He uses blackmail to ensure one of the other characters is granted a reprieve at a crucial moment but his loyalty to others extends only so far.

"At the start he sides with Hector ... but as the play progresses he starts seeing things Irwin's way," Mandzit says.

"All the characters in the play have such depth."

And unlike real life, where people have to wait years to find out how their friends and classmates turn out, here the audience gets to discover the fates of the characters - the good, the bad, the ironic and the tragic - before the play is finished.