The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

THERE’S something very satisfying about Muriel Spark’s heroine inhabiting the Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland, yards from the imposing statue of John Knox.

Even without this accidental irony, this is a roundly enjoyable adaptation. It’s one of the longest shows this year, at just over two hours, but time flies as we’re transported back to the 1930s and Marcia Blaine School.

That’s where Miss Jean Brodie bewitches her junior girls with her unorthodox teaching, rejecting tables and tests for lectures on art and philosophy. Having lost her lover in the First World War, she devotes her ‘prime’ to her gels. Which isn’t to say she forgoes physical passion, with bachelor music master Gordon Lowther and married art teacher Teddy Lloyd sharing her affections. Head Miss Mackay would like to see the back of Brodie, believing she’s leading her class astray, but she just can’t make anything bad stick. Brodie is too careful, her protégées too loyal.

From the minute the schoolgirls march on stage to form a convincing choir, we’re in safe hands. The actors are drilled as well as Brodie’s girls. Anna Francolini is perfection as the schoolmistress, self-possessed to demonic proportions and twice as self-deluded. Battling occasionally dodgy acoustics, she rattles off Brodie’s waspish retorts with style, gradually allowing the vulnerabilities to seep through.

Natalie McConnon’s Sandy surely does possess the insight ascribed to her by Brodie, while Dugald Bruce Lockhart, as Lloyd, can smoulder for Scotland. In fact, the whole cast should be feeling thoroughly pleased with themselves.

It’s too early to say whether this adaptation of Muriel Spark’s novel – written for the stage in the 1960s by Jay Presson Allen and directed by Laurie Sansom – will prove the crème de la crème, but don’t be surprised if it rises to the top.

Until 31 August. Today noon.