Debra Lawrance || Steel Magnolias

The Fame Reporter interviewed acclaimed Australian actress Debra Lawrance, who stars as the warm, sharp and witty Clairee in Steel Magnolias at QPAC’s Playhouse Theatre from 30 April to 10 May, about returning to the Australian stage, the enduring strength of female-led storytelling, and what makes this beloved production so deeply relatable.

Written by Robert Harling, the timeless tale of Steel Magnolias comes alive under the direction of Lee Lewis featuring an extraordinary ensemble led by Lisa McCune (Blue Heelers, Sea Patrol, The 39 Steps), Belinda Giblin (Home & Away, Amadeus, Doubt), Debra Lawrance (Home & Away, Harry Potter and The Cursed Child AU and UK, A Christmas Carol), Mandy Bishop (Wharf Revue, Blue Heelers), Jessica Redmayne (Home & Away, 800 Words, The Great Gatsby) and Lotte Beckett (Julia, The Election Monologues).

Step inside Truvy’s beauty salon, the heart of a small Southern town, where local women share their joys, struggles and a little neighbourly gossip. From weddings and babies to divorces and funerals, they face life’s highs and lows with humour, courage and impeccably styled hair. When tragedy strikes, it’s in these familiar walls that they find comfort, support and the unbreakable bonds of friendship that carry them through.

We caught up with Debra to chat about returning to the stage on home soil, reflecting on a career spanning five decades, and why Steel Magnolias continues to resonate through its honest, deeply human stories of female friendship.

Welcome to The Fame Reporter Debra, in this production of Steel Magnolias, you step into the role of Clairee—a character often described as the social glue of the group. What was your first impression of her, and what drew you to bringing her to life?
I was actually in a production of Steel Magnolas 17 years ago, playing M’Lynn with a wonderful Jennifer Hagan playing Clairee. She just embodied her so beautifully. I got to watch her every night for eight months touring around Australia.

Her sharp wit, her warmth and her authority are enticing qualities, as she is one of the senior ladies, so I’m very excited to be old enough to play her now.

Clairee is known for her wit, warmth, and wonderfully sharp one-liners. How do you strike the balance between her humour and the deeper emotional undercurrents she carries?
The humour is an indication of the deeper emotional current. We often use humour to make things a little bit easier or to express things that are a little bit difficult or to change the subject if someone is suffering.

Without giving too much away, she’s very pragmatic because of her age and her level of authority, so that’s where the balance is. The humour comes out of the need to deal with a deeper emotional undercurrent and a quiet strength.

There’s a quiet strength to Clairee, particularly in how she supports the other women. What have you discovered about her resilience through rehearsal?
We haven’t started rehearsal yet, but I think the script is so beautifully written. Robert Harling wrote it about real women who gathered to have their haircut at the hairdresser salon in a garage.

They’re based on real people, you just have to lift the character off the page via the dialogue. The resilience comes through in the way she speaks about her departed husband.

Steel Magnolias thrives on ensemble chemistry. What has the rehearsal process revealed about the bonds between these women, and how central is Clairee to that energy?
The cast and I have only had a Zoom for dialect coaching and we all get on really well together. We saw each other for photoshoot a couple of months ago, which was lovely and I know a couple of the actresses in it.

I’m looking forward to the process but we’ve already bonded as an ensemble, because the play is such a thing of humour and it also explores the pain all the way through.

Audiences have followed your work from Home and Away to international stages in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on the West End. What does a role like Clairee offer you at this point in your career?
It’s lovely to be on tour with a group of women and it’s lovely to be back in Australia because I spent a year in the West End, which was also fabulous, but it gets me back on the stage again which I really love.

Clairee is a lovely character to play and I also can’t go past the fact that at the age of 69 I’m still working, and that there are characters like Clairee out there for me to play. I just wish there were many more roles for women in their later years, will just have to write them ourselves I guess.

After performing in large-scale productions, what has it been like returning to a more intimate, character-driven ensemble piece?
It’s no different, you are still standing in the wings and you still go on stage but with a more intimate character driven ensemble piece I’m on stage much more. With Harry Potter both Melbourne and London I would come in and out because Professor Mcgonagall wasn’t on stage that much. She had pretty spectacular scenes when she did arrive on the stage but I had a lot of time off.

For Steel Magnolias I have to be ‘on’ all the way through because it is very fast dialogue. I’ll be on stage a lot more, it’s a technical thing.

What continues to draw you to roles that centre strong, complex women like those in Steel Magnolias?
People offer me work, so I take it. I’ve been extremely lucky to have been able to work all the way through my career, nearly 50 years.

There’s still a time where women are the sidekicks of the main male lead, but things are changing slowly, so I really hope I that is in the future for all of the older women coming through behind me.

If you could describe Clairee in three words what would they be?
Warm, sharp and funny.

What do you hope Brisbane audiences take away from Clairee’s journey in this production?
She is a sharp-witted, funny older woman who’s got her own emotional journey. They’ll be women in the audience who are also widows and they will know that we do our work to reflect society back to itself.

People can observe how other people go through crisis or emotional ups and down, so hopefully that the women in the audience who are of Clairee’s age and maybe widows as well, we will get probably a huge amount from her.

Everybody will take away the fact that Clairee’s kind hearted, and there’s a very real reason why she’s quite sharp and witty and, hopefully the way I play it, they’ll see that very clearly.

Quickfire Round

Southern charm or Sharp Comeback
Sharp comeback.

Opening Night adrenaline or Closing Night Nostalgia
Opening night adrenaline.

Rehearsal Room Discoveries or Live Audience Surprises
Rehearsal room discoveries.

Ensemble Moments or One-on-one scene
Hard to say, I’ll probably go for one-on-one scene, because they’re quite challenging.

Classical Theatre or Contemporary Works
All of it is fabulous, whether it’s classical or contemporary and I saw some extraordinary shows in England.

West End Stage or Home Crowd
The crowd in West End were all Harry Potter fans, so there was a huge amount of energy in the theatre. But there’s also something lovely about a home crowd, when you’re working for the MTC (Melbourne Theatre Company), so I really can’t decide.

Sweet tea or something stronger
With Clairee, probably sweet tea.