Teachers play a crucial role in the personal, academic and social development of students throughout their formative years. They have the potential to mould and influence the minds of impressionable children with their own world view and thus carry a huge responsibility on their shoulders.

In her 1961 novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark drew a vivid and utterly captivating portrait of a female teacher genuinely intent on opening up her students’ lives wide open, stirring their awareness of themselves and their world and helping them break free of the social mores and restrictions that women faced in the early part of the 20th century. She is, however, also a woman caught in her own aphorisms and contradictions.

Jean Brodie (played with great energy and skill by the talented Julia Calvert) is an unorthodox and outspoken teacher in the junior school at a conservative school for Girls in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the 1930s run by the strict headmistress Ms Mackay (an excellent restrained portrayal by Katherine Brown).

Miss Brodie has no qualms in straying from the school’s curriculum. She is a self-obsessed, yet remarkably influential, teacher well-known for her love of the arts, her proclivity to romanticise fascist leaders like Mussolini and Franco, and who believes herself to be in her ‘prime’.

Miss Brodie is utterly devoted to her four special 12-year-old junior schoolgirls, called the Brodie Set: Sandy (Jasmine Farrugia), Monica (Sandie von Brockdorff), Jenny (Taryn Mamo Cefai) and Mary (Kyra Lautier).

She is also the object of desire of the bland, but dependable, bachelor Gordon Lowther, the music teacher (played with the right dose of comedy by Stefan Farrugia), with whom she and her girls spend a lot of time at his home in Cramond.

Played with great energy and skill by the talented Julia Calvert

Her heart, however, still longs for her ex-lover, the colourful yet philandering Teddy Lloyd (an excellent Jonathan Dunn), who is the art teacher in the senior school. Despite Lloyd’s overwhelming obsession with her, Brodie simply cannot get herself to love a married man and the father of six children.

As she tries to navigate this messy love triangle she becomes more and more manipulative of her girls, until one of them betrays her to the headmistress and brings about her eventual dismissal.

In Jay Presson Allen’s screenplay, the story is told as a flash-back by Sister Helena, a cloistered nun (strongly portrayed by Ninette Micallef) while being interviewed by Mr Perry, an American literary journalist (Michael Mangion).

We learn that Sister Helena is actually Sandy, the student that brought about Brodie’s demise. This rather forced narrative device is in contrast to Spark’s novel, where the story is told using a flash-forward technique.

Chaira Hyzler’s direction was very effective in simplifying what is, essentially, a complex story without glossing over the nuances of the various characters. Her staging was direct and made good use of the Blue Box’s intimate space.

The judicious use of the girls’ excellent hymn singing also created the right atmosphere in which to tell their story.

The level of acting was very good throughout with vivid characterisation and strong vocal delivery. The cast, made up of very talented stage veterans and relative newcomers alike, vividly brought to life the text and although some struggled more than others to pull off a credible Scottish accent this did not detract from the enjoyment of the evening.

Special mention must be made, however, to all four Brodie girls, who I thought were excellent both in their individual portrayals and in their ensemble acting. They were truly worthy to be called the “crème de la crème”.

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