The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

Adapted by David Harrower 

From the novel by Muriel Spark

Ever since 1961 Muriel Spark’s most famous antiheroine Miss Jean Brodie has been in the business of putting old heads on young shoulders. 

Hand selecting a few girls to be the Brodie set a tight-knit group to be captured by her charm and bohemian way of teaching, telling them stories of Italy and the paintings of Giotto rather than the maths she should be teaching. 

Her set the year we meet her is Monica (Tallulah Grieve) Jenny (Shreya Khaund Marshall) Sandy (Bobby Rainsbury) Mary (Liberty Black) and on the outskirts yet most impressionable Joyce Emily (Sophie Fortune) 

Jean Brodie played by the excellent Gayle Rankin stalks the amphitheatre like set in flowing green blouse with huge wing like sleeves allowing her to land beside the girls like a beautiful butterfly, the girls are in their last year of junior school and wear traditional style school uniforms. 

Jean Brodie rules her class with her set fawning on her every word, interestingly her love for Italy is not only confined to the beauty of the art and buildings she idolises Mussolini. She is almost like him in the way she demands devotion of her girls. 

Jean has two men who are in love with her, both teachers in the school Mr Lowther (Brian Fergusson) and Mr Lloyd (Dyfan Dwyfor) Mr Lowther is the dependable but slightly boring Music Teacher who lives alone. Mr Lloyd the hot headed and artistic Art Teacher with a wife and an ever-increasing family. 

Brian Fergusson gives real life and depth to Mr lowther. You can feel the hot blooded temper in Dyfan’s Mr Lloyd.

By the end of the term Jean has the girls totally in her control and the men both sweating under the collar.

When the girls move into the upper school and start to become more mature.

Their costumes have changed from the drab school skirts to far more sheer revealing fabric. The cracks begin to show with them and their friendship with Jean.

Jean believes that she can be given a girl at an impressionable age, and she is hers for life. 

As the girls drop off to do their own thing Jean only has Sandy and Jenny left, one of which scorns her and the other betrays her. 

Leaving only Joyce Emily to influence which she does with disastrous consequences. 

During the play Miss Mackay played by a scene stealing Maureen Beattie keeps a close eye on Brodie warning her to let the girls learn the curriculum and not her bohemian ways. Maureen Beattie commands a stage, watching her you can tell she has played in many, many theatres. Every word even in whisper could be heard round the auditorium. Something any actor who works with her should study and try to replicate. 

Mackay has a tremendous scene with Brodie towards the end opening up about her own tragedy. It’s the first time we see real emotion between the two women and they both play it with conviction, brutal honesty and heart. 

The girls finally strip Brodie of her fine clothes and dress her in a dowdy cardigan and skirt. The woman who put so much effort into looking flawless is seen living out the last of her days in palliative care, still telling the same fanciful tales she told her girls when she was young. A very sad end to the inspiring yet flawed teacher who scoffed at the spinsters in the profession. 

This adaptation by David Harrower and directed by Vicky Featherstone is razor sharp and you are left feeling uneasy. There is so much you can admire in Brodie and wish for a teacher like her. Yet you also feel a hatred to the woman who caused such suffering brought on by sheer devotion, something akin to the fascist regime she so greatly admired.    

This production  is The Crème de la Crème.

Running  at the Glasgow Citz up to 7th November.