Big hair, bigger heart: Mandy Bishop on bringing Truvy to life in STEEL MAGNOLIAS
Steel Magnolias is a story about the women who hold a community together — six friends whose lives intersect inside Truvy’s beauty salon in a small Southern town, trading gossip and comfort through weddings, births, divorces and, eventually, tragedy. Robert Harling’s play has endured for decades on the strength of that balance: sharp, Southern-fried humour sitting right alongside real grief, and a portrait of friendship sturdy enough to carry both.
That balance is now on stage in a new Australian production directed by Lee Lewis, produced by Neil Gooding Productions and Woodward Productions. Among the cast is Mandy Bishop, taking on the role of Truvy.
Mandy is a global actress, singer, writer and producer, best known for the annual Wharf Revue (Sydney Theatre Company/Soft Tread Enterprises), where she’s played Tanya Plibersek, Jacqui Lambie and Anthony Albanese, among others. Her ‘Julia Gillard’ began on Channel 7’s Double Take and became At Home With Julia for the ABC, winning an Equity Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble Award and earning AACTA and AWGIE nominations. She trained at UNE and WAAPA, where she won the Leslie Anderson Award for most outstanding graduate.
Recent theatre credits include The Pillowman (Belvoir), Optimism (Malthouse/Sydney Festival/STC), Losing Louis, Bite My Chilli and work with Old Fitzroy, Darlinghurst Theatre, Neglected Musicals/Hayes Theatre and Griffin Theatre. On screen, she’s appeared in Blue Heelers (a reunion with fellow Steel Magnolias castmate Lisa McCune), Heartbreak High, My Place, Rake, Home & Away, Review with Myles Barlow, Law & Order: SVU and more, and recently starred in the feature film Fangs alongside Joel Edgerton and Toni Collette. She most recently played Katie in the Ensemble Theatre’s premiere of David Williamson’s The Social Ladder.
Truvy is the warm centre around whom everything revolves — the confidant, the keeper of secrets. How do you find the emotional anchor of a character who is so consistently there for everyone else?
Truvy certainly has skills I don’t have in real life! As a girlfriend who saw the show told me, Truvy is the epitome of how to behave, how to love, and how to listen to EVERYONE in a vibrant, delicate and sometimes treacherous environment. All the while keeping her business thriving. I researched a lot of the real Dolly Parton interviews at the time of her role in the film. not the film itself so much (although it is a beauty!), but the real Dolly and her philosophy on life, as she found herself at that time. She was psychologically, emotionally and dare I say probably spiritually, a pioneer for women in the awareness and acceptance of herself as a public figure. Dolly was very open to discussing she wished to be in the world as a Music Artist and Actor, and her meeting of failure and success in equal measure, was refreshing. She ran her own business, the business of Dolly Parton and she was experimenting often with various media. This left (and still leaves her with) great space for generosity to others. She handled all the tricky questions about her life and Art choices at the time, with such finely tuned emotional articulation and grace. Watching her as ‘herself’ taught me more of big hearts. (Not to mention her incredible beauty – inside and out.) So when it came to rehearsals, we worked on openness and the dexterity of light hearts steering difficult conversations throughout the play. In the event of something deeper needed, we opened the flood gates and aim to be present, with as little of her own (Truvy’s) fear, so she can hear and cradle her dearest friends.
You’ve worked across an extraordinary range in your career. Is there a throughline in the work you’re drawn to?
Heart fuelled, intellectual, fun, difficult (in a good way…!) specific work that hopefully forwards the human conversation and reflection. I like to work on projects that demand all my synapses. Quite often, and quite stupidly, I like to work on things I don’t yet have the skills for…what could possibly go wrong?!
This cast is a remarkable line-up of Aussie acting greats. What’s the dynamic like in the room when everyone brings that much experience to the table?
Incredibly fun. It was remarkably delightful to rehearse because of that experience I think, and our work ethic as a whole team, from Producers, Creatives, Crew and Cast, has been second to none. Our enjoyment in the room was also due to the brilliant direction of Lee Lewis who allowed us to bring so much to that first day together. Decisions of character were quick because of everyone’s pre-production research, and then it was on to learning how to ‘cape’ or not to ‘cape’, cut ,or curl, heat or manicure. The navigating of the emotional territory of the mother and daughter relationship benefitted from the experience in the room too. I do think it was a pretty great and safe space to explore intergenerational, female survival. A wonderful thing about this play is it covers three generations of women, mature, middle and younger. And it is the more mature women who have a lot of the funniest dialogue. It is a joy to watch it unleashed every night now that we’re performing, by that brilliant experience you mention. I’m proud to be learning from them.
Steel Magnolias is a play that lives and dies on the authenticity of its female friendships. How does an ensemble build that kind of trust quickly, especially on a touring production?
I think the fact that the story is a true story, of the playwright’s sister, mother and the mother’s friends, demanded our instant respect. This was a massive short cut in developing our bond on this production, across the board. Shelby, real name Susan, actually lived and this play is truly her legacy, as granted by her own brother. We jumped in because we had no choice. No time was wasted. Now that we’re on tour, we have finally some time to meet our fellow cast and crew members. Touring just makes our new friendships better and better as we carry on like pork chops about who’s catching a cab together to airports at what time and where did you get your gluten free meal from? Something tells me Steel Magnolias casts are usually good friends at the end of a run.
What’s the best piece of gossip you’ve ever heard in an actual hair salon?
For some reason gossip doesn’t fly in the hair dressing salon I go to, probably because we’re too busy yakking ourselves!! But the owners’ doggy had enough of whatever we were taking about one day, and the poor thing vomitted up something very green on the white tiles. In the play, Ouiser (played beautifully by Belinda Giblin) leaves her doggy outside the salon because it’s having a nervous reaction to the wedding “preparations” nextdoor. Spoiler alert, Ouiser’s dog Rhett, creates pretty fun havoc at the end of Act 1 Scene 1…
Why should audiences come and see Steel Magnolias?
This production, is a delicate yet also rambunctious, honest telling of a quick-witted, ripper of a play. Audiences will know some of the lines…even if they’ve never been to the film or play. It has a grip on the ‘tight friend’ vernacular in a way that will keep people thrilled to see themselves onstage. That, and it’s a beautiful true story about what medicine was achieving in the 1980’s, about neighbours, about frenemies, about love, marriage, widowhood, careers (first, second and third) hardships, having annoying baby brothers, unemployment, birth, tradition, religion and spicy convo’s when the subjects are not in ear shot!
Steel Magnolias is playing at the Atheneum Theatre, Melbourne.
For tickets and more information, visit www.steelmagnoliasplay.com
