Lady Windermere's Fan Star Grace Molony on Her Big Debut, Getting Used to Corsets & Working with an AbFab Legend

Few performers fresh out of drama school land the title role in a star-heavy revival of an Oscar Wilde classic, but that is the happy position in which 22-year-old Grace Molony finds herself at the Vaudeville Theatre, where she plays the conflicted Lady Windermere in the new West End production of Lady Windermere’s Fan. The show also stars Samantha Spiro and AbFab’s Jennifer Saunders. An excited Molony spoke to Broadway.com one recent lunchtime about seizing the spotlight and adjusting to life in a corset.

Is this production really your London stage debut—with you in the title role, no less?
It is and I can’t believe it!  To think that a year ago I was at LAMDA [the celebrated west London drama school] rehearsing for our musical, Spring Awakening, in which I had three lines only to then find myself at Chichester in The Country Girls [by Irish novelist Edna O’Brien] and now on the West End in this. It’s just been a crazy year!

How do you think Wilde’s 1892 comedy holds up today?
It feels so relevant to me, as if these are characters that you might see every day in society. It’s so relatable: I think it’s a shame this show isn’t done more. [The play was last revived in London in 2002, with Vanessa Redgrave and her real-life daughter, Joely Richardson.]

How would you describe its tone?
I think people will be surprised at how funny it hopefully is. In the past, the play has been made into a tragedy and the film of Lady Windermere really isn’t funny at all and I don’t think was trying to be. But though some tragic things do happen in the play and there are high stakes throughout, we’ve found little witty moments throughout the whole piece.

What do you think Wilde, who was an astute social critic, was getting at with a play that is in fact set on Lady Windermere’s birthday?
The main themes really have to do with what’s right and wrong and whether things can even be defined as right and wrong—or good and evil. People may think they’re being good but they’re also spreading gossip and scandal.

How does this climate affect Lady Windermere herself?
Since doing this show I seem to have used the word “sacrifice” more than I ever have before. Lady Windermere is a bit obsessed with the need to sacrifice, whether in relationships or society.

What’s the relevance of the fan, for those who don’t know the play?
It’s a bit like the handkerchief in Othello insofar as that fan really does go on a journey! It’s Lady Windermere’s present from her husband and is beautifully engraved with her name on it but it ends up in a way being the protagonist of the entire play. We should get little legs for it to walk onstage at the end for a bow.

Had you had any experience with Wilde while at LAMDA?
Not at all. We did a bit of Shaw and some Restoration comedy but that was it. Luckily, I got invited to the press night of [last fall’s Wilde revival] A Woman of No Importance after I knew I had this which was really, really helpful. I thought, “How on earth am I going to bring this off the page and make it seem natural and believable and real,” so it was a great help to watch what someone like Eve Best does with this language. 

How does Jennifer Saunders, of all contemporary comedians, suit the world of Oscar Wilde?
She’s perfect for it! Just from the first rehearsals, she had it down: Jennifer is such a natural at making this language sound modern, as if it’s her language. She can take something on paper that probably isn’t even meant to be funny and turn it into something brilliant.

Are you getting used to wearing a corset as part of your period costume?
No big meals for me until April!  The tactic I’ve discovered with a corset is to be the biggest you’re going to be when you have your first fitting so that you’re ready when the costume ladies then pull them tight—which is what they would have done at the time. I had to wear one for a film I did last summer, and your body does get used to it.

What can you tell us about that film?
It’s a movie of [Schiller’s classic play] Mary Stuart, directed by Josie Rourke, who, of course, runs the Donmar, and starring [2018 Oscar nominees] Margot Robbie and Saoirse Ronan. All of my scenes are with Margot, who plays Elizabeth I. She was fantastic. I’m playing one of her handmaidens—her ladies in waiting.

What was the shoot like for you?
The film was a huge learning experience for me. I didn’t have a lot to do but I got to experience what it was like on a big film set. Lots of the actors on it were saying that it was the most rehearsal period they’ve ever had: Josie clearly is bringing her experience of theater into film directing, which is amazing. 

Is the world of the theater a familiar one to you?
In fact, it is. My dad [Patrick]is a production manager, which is a totally different side to what I do. He’s actually the production manager on this play, which is just so strange. He came to a run yesterday, and I made him sit at the back. I was, like, “Don’t cry!” and he managed to hold it together [laughs]. And my mum [Lesley] is an actress. She took 10 years out when my brother and I were born, but recently she has gone back into it.

Do you have a first memory of going to the theater?
Yes, my parents took me to Annie and I stood up for the whole show. My bum did not touch the seat I loved it so much. I’ve always adored the theater, and I still do!