The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
By Jay Presson Allen, adapted from the novel by Muriel Spark
Synopsis:
The Marcia Blaine School for Girls is a shining educational beacon in 1930’s Edinburgh. Its teachers are pillars of respectability and their pupils are taught to the highest standards. Or so it appears.
Behind the scenes in classroom, art room, playground and corridor, a different story is unfolding. A charismatic teacher in her prime, Miss Jean Brodie, schools her pupils to follow an alternative agenda.
“I am in the business of putting old heads on young shoulders, and all my pupils are the crème de la crème. Give me a girl at an impressionable age and she is mine for life.”
Four of Miss Brodie’s hand-picked pupils - Sandy, Jenny, Monica and Mary - are chosen for their special talents and taught to celebrate beauty, secrecy, conspiracy and anti-establishment views. Around these favourite pupils Jean Brodie weaves a web of fantastic stories, unconventional values, Fascist politics and tales of unrequited love.
Caught in Miss Brodie’s mesh, each girl is altered forever by the eccentric lessons in love, learning and life they receive at her hands, but ultimately Brodie’s manipulative and duplicitous ways lead to her own destruction…brought about by one of her very own “girls”.
Reviewers said of this production in 2009:
“Caroline Groom is superb in this demanding role, emulating Maggie Smith as much as she plays Miss Jean Brodie, but adding a touch of style that is all her own.”
“Quite captivating…………………a great night's entertainment”
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is an unmissable, pitch-perfect production by a company in its very own “prime”, enjoying a revival in Bath before touring to The Minack Theatre, Cornwall in August.
Pre-show supper available Thursday-Saturday, 6pm. Please choose your meal from the options below and ring 01225 428600 or email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) to book - £15 per person.
Supper menu:
Camembert and Sticky Onion Filo Parcels
- or
Creamy Mushroom, Lemon and Parmesan Spaghetti
- or
Lemon Meringue Pie
- or
Summer Pudding
- or
Teas and coffees to finish.
Director/s | Cast:
Ann Garner
Director
Caroline Groom
Miss Jean Brodie
Joanna Bowman
Miss Mackay
Richard Matthews
Teddy Lloyd
Tim West
Gordon Lowther
Cara Aldous
SIster Helena
Nicky Wilkins
Mr Perry
Alan Casse
Caretaker
Verity Ferris
Sandy (Cast 1)
Sophie McDermott
Jenny (Cast 1)
Hatti Garner
Monica (Cast 1)
Emma Phillips
Mary (Cast 1)
Anna-Fleur Rawlinson
Sandy (Cast 2)
Holly Aldous
Jenny (Cast 2)
Poppy Harrison
Monica (Cast 2)
Maddy McGlynn
Mary (Cast 2)
Malika Foster
Schoolgirl
Flora Stone
Schoolgirl
Niamh O’Sullivan
Schoolgirl
Jenny McGlynn
Schoolgirl
Review/s of Brodie:
Review 1: Jean is still in her prime after half a century
Many a bottle of wine has been shared over a discussion about whether the film was better than the book or the other way round. Even decades on, the jury is still out over Muriel Spark's novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – first published 50 years ago this year – and the film with the iconic performance by Maggie Smith. If you missed Next Stage Theatre Company's acclaimed performance of Jay Presson…click here to read the whole review.
By Bath Chronicle
Review 2: Review:Bath Chronicle
For exactly 50 years Jean Brodie has been telling us that not only is she in her prime but that if she is given a girl at an impressionable age she is hers for life. So, is she a great teacher, a rather pathetic spinster or actually a monster? This powerful, beautifully constructed revival of the Muriel Spark story helps us in our decision though that, I suspect, is likely to be different for each…click here to read the whole review.
By Christopher Hansford, Bath Chronicle
Review 3: Venue review
Muriel Spark’s 1930s school scandal is the latest bold production choice of Bath community theatre aces Next Stage, a troupe for whom no play is ever too heavily -accented (here, Edinburgh), sexually forthright (some sensitively handled teacher-pupil action) or intellectually rigorous (what is education for?). This show’s off to Cornwall’s Minack Theatre this summer and tourists there had better…click here to read the whole review.
