DIRECT a play by Alan Bennett and you get an invitation to meet the playwright at his Yorkshire home.

“I’m very fortunate to have done several of his plays and part of the ritual is to go and have tea with him,” says Christopher Luscombe, who directs the first revival of Bennett’s award-winning play The History Boys.

Last year, he directed Bennett’s play Enjoy, in the West End and on tour with Alison Steadman and David Troughton. The production comes to Newcastle Theatre Royal, in March.

Now he’s tackling The History Boys, which premiered at London’s National Theatre before going to Broadway and touring in the UK. It was also filmed.

The new production is at West Yorkshire Playhouse, in Leeds, with Gerard Murphy starring as the teacher helping eight Sheffield sixth-formers aiming for Oxbridge.

Luscombe, fresh from having tea with Bennett, says: “He told me how pleased he is that the play is being done in Leeds.

He talked warmly about this theatre and how much he loves it.

“One of the things about Shakespeare is you can do what you like because he’s not alive. To find yourself as a regular collaborator with a living playwright is extraordinary and a great privilege. The more of his plays I’ve done, the more he’s become relaxed about doing my own thing with it.

“He has said, ‘treat me like a dead author’.

“I’ve worked with authors who find it very hard to let go of their work. Bennett was intimately involved in the original production of The History Boys. Then he steps back and lets the cast and director do their own thing with it.”

Luscombe isn’t intimidated by the success of the original National Theatre production.

He hasn’t returned to the film version, intending to keep to his own staging and not be influenced by the previous one.

“I’m hugely in awe of those great productions. It’s my choice to do it. I’m not attempting to do anything radically different to the National Theatre. It’s a play that requires a high concept and that production was very good.

“But I couldn’t resist this opportunity when Alan Bennett is still very much with us and I can chat with him.”

Whether Bennett will go to the Leeds production isn’t known. “He’s very particular about seeing his work,” says Luscombe. “He’s always terribly apologetic about it. He really doesn’t go back to see his old plays and wants to get on with the next play. He said if he saw it again he’d want to rewrite it, but we’re hoping to get him up here if we possibly can.”

After the experience of reviving Enjoy, Luscombe is prepared to make changes in The History Boys if he considers them necessary.

During the course of Enjoy, he did edit the script. “Enjoy is a very long play. I said to him, ‘would you mind terribly if I edited it a bit?” and he said, ‘I overwrite anyway’.”

After the tea party, Bennett told him to come round any time to talk about the production. “It’s the best of both worlds. He says do what you want with it. As he waved me off, he said, ‘just enjoy yourself’.”

■ The History Boys runs at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, from February 3 to March 6 (tickets 0113-213770 and wyp.org.uk), and at Newcastle Theatre Royal, from May 4 to 8 (tickets 0844-811- 2121 and theatreroyal.co.uk).

Enjoy tours to Newcastle Theatre Royal, from March 8 to 13.