Gayle Rankin's Jean Brodie Ditches the Starch at Royal Lyceum

Gayle Rankin plays Jean Brodie as funny, sharp-tongued and sexually forthright in Vicky Featherstone's new production of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie at the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh.

The review, published by the Guardian's culture desk, praises a staging that ditches 1930s starchiness in favour of the bohemian avant garde. Muriel Spark's heroine, the critic writes, is made "more extraordinary still".

The production opens on a characteristic scene. Jean Brodie has entered the classroom of Mr Lowther, the music teacher played by Brian Ferguson. She tells him she will not be a distraction. "Proceed as if I wasn't here," she says.

Nothing, the review notes, can proceed as if Jean Brodie was not there. Rankin's Brodie arrives in a drape-sleeved top and figure-hugging leather skirt, and she is impossible to ignore.

What does the staging look like?

Chloe Lamford's set is a little bit lecture theatre and, in the critic's words, "an awful lot neo-classical staircase", rendered in dust pink. Across it, Rankin "floats like an exotic moth: colourful, distractable, ever present".

The creative team named in the review:

• Director: Vicky Featherstone
• Jean Brodie: Gayle Rankin
• Mr Lowther: Brian Ferguson
• Set designer: Chloe Lamford
• Venue: Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh
• Source text: Muriel Spark's novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Why does this reading matter?

The review's central claim is one of reinvention. Where earlier incarnations of Brodie have leaned on 1930s starchiness, Featherstone's version aligns the character with the bohemian avant garde. That shift lets Rankin play the teacher's comedy and her sharp tongue alongside a franker sexuality than the role has often carried.

Rankin's casting signals the production's reach: she is best known for screen work, and her Brodie arrives on the Scottish stage in the city where Spark set and lived much of the story. The Guardian's verdict — that Spark's "extraordinary heroine" has been made "more extraordinary still" — positions the production as more than a faithful revival.

For audiences weighing a trip to Edinburgh, the review offers a clear invitation: a designer staircase, a leather-skirted Brodie and a teacher who commands every room she enters, whether or not she promises to stay quiet.