The Oxford Playhouse’s recent sell-out production of Alan Bennett’s The History Boys was less of a play, more a participatory event. Despite all the poetry: ‘Pass it On, Boys, Pass it On,’ its dramatic spirit on the night was more Rocky Horror Show meets Jacques Tati. You get the gist. It rocked.

I’ve rarely been in an auditorium so full of life, and shimmering with frank enjoyment. The pavement outside swirled with air kisses and hair. Parents and older theatre goers’ faces wore faint, crinkled smiles, bemused by the vibrant bonhomie.

It was May, it was the cusp of exams, it was going over the top – and how.

As this was an Oxford University Student Company production, parents of the cast’s rictus grins may have suggested something else: their pride mingled with apprehension. A production of this scale demands days – no weeks – of real time commitment, on top of an already heavy workload.

Bennett even made a joke about it: never put drama on your application. Tutors don’t like the hours ring-fenced from books. An enthusiastic thespian, Bennett’s own time at Exeter College, reading History might have included a few time-tussles with his tutor.

Some of the audience knew the cast; some had the hots for the cast. Some both. I know this, because my daughter’s friend travelled from the South Coast to be there on the night. She was well prepared. She dusted off my old field glasses, last used in the Serengeti. Never mind the Big Five. T

his was the Big One – an actor she’d stalked on Facebook. He was by no means the best talent in the production but she was satisfied with her ticket price. Others, of course had a serious interest in the drama. This did not include a row of language school students in front, who rapidly lost interest, and then began to bob up and down, leaving their seats.

One student squeezed past the entire row. There was a domino effect. He finally popped out the other side. The stage went psychedelic. I did not want a close-up of his tie-dye T-shirt. And we were trying to follow Bennet’s bon mots. We didn’t want to miss a word. Nicholas Hytner’s film of The History Boys is so well known, and made so many of its National Theatre cast stars, that it’s not surprising that the script was so familiar.

It was also deliciously topical. Many sitting in the Playhouse’s comfortable seats were also those who had dared to enter the contest (to go to Oxford or Cambridge) – and, against all odds, could join Hector’s Scholarship Class waving their envelopes in triumph.

What Bennett shows is that entrance success to Oxbridge is just the start. It’s what you do next – and the use you put your life to, which really matters.