The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
The Playhouse Company presents:
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
There can be few teachers more vividly drawn in literature, than Muriel Spark's creation, Miss Jean Brodie:
"Little girls, I am in the business of putting old head on young shoulders, and all my pupils are the créme de la créme."
She has her favourites - her 'Brodie Set' - the beautiful Jenny, the timid Mary, the dramatic Monica, and the sharp-witted and ever-watchful Sandy.
"Give me a girl at an impressionable age, and she is mine for life." speaks the dedicated Miss Brodie to her enraptured class.
In conservative and respectable Edinburgh, in the 1930s, sits the Marica Blaine School for Girls. Within that drab facility, we follow the girls' journey under the influence of the unconventional and charismatic Miss Brodie; through their school years, from their adoration to their disillusionment.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is full of humour, as well as being a gripping drama of manipulation and suspicion; and ultimately betrayal.
In 2019, the BBC published a list of the top 100 Most Inspiring Novels written in the English language. The 1961 novel of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark is included in this list. The 1966 stage adaptation by Jay Presson Allen starred Vanessa Redgrave as Jean Brodie. The late Maggie Smith won Best Actress Oscar for her performance as Jean Brodie in the 1969 Film. Geraldine McEwan played Jean Brodie to great acclaim in the 1978 TV Series.
