Published in The Guardian
Promises Promises
Tron, Glasgow
4 out of 5
You could say this play was purpose-built for readers of this newspaper's Education and Society sections. Margaret Ann Brodie has just arrived as a supply teacher in a London school when she discovers a community group is about to perform an exorcism on one of her pupils, a six-year-old Somali girl who is an elective mute. The scene is set for a debate about classroom control and multiculturalism: should tolerance of beliefs extend to summoning devils before playtime?
Yet it would be wrong to call Douglas Maxwell's gripping monologue an issue play, though it shares much of the turbulent uncertainty of Blackbird or Oleanna. Promises Promises is based on a true story, but the drama is less about the rights and wrongs of witchcraft or the challenges of a multilingual classroom, and more about the character of Brodie herself.
When the head teacher, a fellow Scot, incorrectly refers to The Pride (sic) of Miss Jean Brodie, he inadvertently gets this Miss Brodie right. With 40 years' teaching behind her, she is past her prime – even if actor Joanna Tope invests her with a sassy sexuality – but it is pride that brings about her downfall. Many of her instincts are good, but her snooty "it wasn't like this in my day" attitudes turn a bad situation into a catastrophe.
Having started with Muriel Spark, the play passes through the doppelganger worlds of Robert Louis Stevenson and James Hogg, as Brodie recognises aspects of her own childhood in that of the little girl. With that, Maxwell's easy comedy hits dark psychological waters, like something by Edgar Allan Poe, as it slowly exposes the damaged woman behind the brusquely efficient teacher. Tope rides the transitions superbly in Johnny McKnight's haunting production for Random Accomplice, leaving us unsettled by a class act.
© Mark Fisher 2010
Promises Promises
Tron, Glasgow
4 out of 5
You could say this play was purpose-built for readers of this newspaper's Education and Society sections. Margaret Ann Brodie has just arrived as a supply teacher in a London school when she discovers a community group is about to perform an exorcism on one of her pupils, a six-year-old Somali girl who is an elective mute. The scene is set for a debate about classroom control and multiculturalism: should tolerance of beliefs extend to summoning devils before playtime?
Yet it would be wrong to call Douglas Maxwell's gripping monologue an issue play, though it shares much of the turbulent uncertainty of Blackbird or Oleanna. Promises Promises is based on a true story, but the drama is less about the rights and wrongs of witchcraft or the challenges of a multilingual classroom, and more about the character of Brodie herself.
When the head teacher, a fellow Scot, incorrectly refers to The Pride (sic) of Miss Jean Brodie, he inadvertently gets this Miss Brodie right. With 40 years' teaching behind her, she is past her prime – even if actor Joanna Tope invests her with a sassy sexuality – but it is pride that brings about her downfall. Many of her instincts are good, but her snooty "it wasn't like this in my day" attitudes turn a bad situation into a catastrophe.
Having started with Muriel Spark, the play passes through the doppelganger worlds of Robert Louis Stevenson and James Hogg, as Brodie recognises aspects of her own childhood in that of the little girl. With that, Maxwell's easy comedy hits dark psychological waters, like something by Edgar Allan Poe, as it slowly exposes the damaged woman behind the brusquely efficient teacher. Tope rides the transitions superbly in Johnny McKnight's haunting production for Random Accomplice, leaving us unsettled by a class act.
© Mark Fisher 2010
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