Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh
Five stars
A school reunion opens the National Theatre of Scotland’s suitably monumental looking twenty-first century reboot of Muriel Spark’s classic novel. Beside a semi circular coliseum style staircase that dominates the stage, a grown up Sandy Stranger and her less likely peers from the girl gang once known as the Brodie Set rewind on their between the wars adolescence that shaped them. This, as we know, was down largely to the mercurial figure of Jean Brodie, the self mythologizing libertine whose every inspirational utterance in David Harrower’s simmering new adaptation sounds like a victory speech.
Gayle Rankin’s chic and sensual Brodie first appears striding down the steps of Chloe Lamford’s epic set looking part Hollywood diva, part demagogue. Her students follow, initially looking more St. Trinian’s than Edinburgh’s Marcia Blaine School for Girls. This is a fleeting pre-cursor in Vicky Featherstone’s production for when they later run riot, high on sherry, art and the eternal self-belief instilled in them by Brodie.
What follows as new girls Sandy and Joyce Emily initially fall under Brodie’s spell alongside Jenny, Monica and Mary is a mass getting of wisdom for all. As each gradually sees through their mentor’s charismatic allure or else just learns to do their own thing, however, the crème de la crème turns sour.
All of which makes for a daring reimagining of Spark’s novella, which taps into the ever darkening complexities of its heroine as her maverick ways kick against the pricks of the seemingly ordinary world she must inhabit. As Brodie swoops in and out like some avenging angel on a mission, dropping titbits of wisdom as she goes, she reveals a far bigger landscape during a particular time in twentieth century history. The grand ideas she falls for are as easy to espouse as they are to fall apart once their consequences are laid bare.
Harrower doesn’t take sides here. He just shows of the everyday flaws that exist behind the beautifully turned out façade. Part drama queen, part woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown, Rankin’s Brodie still cuts a flamboyant dash in costume designer Anna Orton’s series of attention seeking outfits framed beautifully by Lizzie Powell’s lighting.
It is Brodie’s wilfully individual establishment baiting attitude that captivates not just her pupils, but music teacher Gordon Lowther and art master Teddy Lloyd. The yin and yang of Jean’s amours, Lowther is played by Brian Ferguson with puppy dog earnestness, while Dyfan Dwyfor makes for a louche and perennially horny Lloyd. Only Maureen Beattie’s magnificently old school Miss Mackay sees through the web Brodie casts around her as her world slowly implodes.
As the girls, Liberty Black brings poor Mary to life with uncomplicated lack of guile, and Sophie Fortune captures Joyce Emily’s increasingly disruptive presence that sees her radicalised to her doom. Tallulah Greive as straight-laced Monica and Shreya Khaund Marshall’s would-be starlet Jenny may not live up to everything promised them by Brodie, but at least they live to tell the tale. As does Sandy, played by Bobby Rainsbury in a way that illustrates her path from quiet dissenter to eventual betrayal as she channels her adolescent experience into her own art.
The girls scamper their way towards their respective futures choreographed by Charlotte Mclean. Their collective felicities are soundtracked by the delirium of Pippa Murphy’s thumping electronic score that points towards a future that sounds sired from a European techno club rather than Marcia Blaine. Throughout all this, the back of the stage is filled by images of revolution and radical art care of Lewis den Hertog’s video design.
At the centre of everything is Miss Brodie herself, who is brought to life by Rankin with a sublime and swaggering presence. Rankin captures Brodie’s studied mannerisms, brooding brittleness and a barely repressed sexuality that drives her towards some kind of emancipation through the heady cocktail of spiritual, political and artistic enlightenment she craves.
Combined, this makes for a thrilling experience that gets to the heart of the story without ever losing sight of its source. Featherstone navigates its largesse with a confidence that allows the material to fly. There are even a couple of knowing nods to the 1969 film version of Spark’s book. Crucially, unlike previous versions, we get a glimpse of what Sandy and co did next once they escaped from Brodie’s influence which, for Sandy especially, still leaves its mark.
As for the woman who started it all, Miss Brodie’s prime is clearly well behind her, but in the play’s final moments she might just have found some kind of liberation, if not immortality at the hands of those who changed her life as much as she changed theirs.
Part of the NTS’ twentieth anniversary celebrations, and enabled with input from Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum and Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Harrower, Featherstone and co’s mighty rendering breathes vital life into a classic work to reinvent it anew.
The Herald, October 12th 2026
Ends
Comments