Founded in 1983 and named in honour of Old Harrovian playwright Sir Terence Rattigan (The Park 1925²), the Rattigan Society is Harrow’s drama society.

The group organises visits to professional theatre and welcomes distinguished practitioners to deliver its Annual Lecture. Members also stage plays, including the annual Rattigan Society Production, which ranges from musical theatre to contemporary and classical work.

An audience packed out the Ryan Theatre’s newly renovated seats to watch this year’s major production, Alan Bennett’s The History Boys. The play, about a group of Oxbridge candidates and an inspiring General Studies teacher who doesn’t like to follow the rules, depicts its characters’ journey of discovery, about learning, sexuality and themselves.

The play began with the traditional ring of back-to-school bells and pupils rushing to lessons. The cast’s performance was convincing and humorous, while the quick transitions between class room and staff room gave the production a filmic quality.

This production was directed by Harrow’s Director-in-Residence, Ms Annabel Morley, and included several younger boys who have recently graduated from the Junior Rattigan Society.