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 she weaves a web of fantastic stories, unconventional values, Fascist politics and tales of unrequited love.

Caught in Jean 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:
"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”.

This show was performed at The Minack Theatre, Cornwall in August 2011.

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 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie minack:

Review 1: At the Minack

THE BELL is ringing at Edinburgh's Marcia Blaine School for Girls, lessons are to be learned, and Miss Jean Brodie is in her prime, only too ready to begin "putting old heads on young shoulders." Adapted by Jay Presson Allen from what is possibly Muriel Spark's best-known novel, it is staged in the 1930s, and an A-plus to director Ann Garner and her production team for not only striking a sense of…click here to read the whole review.

By Frank Ruhrmund, Cornishman

Show and rehearsal photographs: