Audiences love to hate Lady Bracknell and actors love to play her. Paul T. Taylor is the latest actor to tackle the role of the formidable mama in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, playing September 5- 22 at Stage West Theatre in Fort Worth.
Taylor talks about playing the role in drag, the brilliance of the classic comedy’s language, what Lady Bracknell would have been like in the 1980s, what this proper lady has in common with one of his most famous roles and which of Lady Bracknell’s lines is his favorite – for today, at least.
NBC DFW: What do you love about playing Lady Bracknell?
Paul T. Taylor: It’s always fun to play a domineering person who thinks they are the smartest one in the room. I’ve been playing those people my entire life. I’m also enjoying the many facets of playing a very strong woman. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in drag, and I love the power that drag gives me. It’s an inherent comic element. Lady Bracknell is such a classic literary character and has been played by so many people before me that it’s fun to give it the ol’ Paul Taylor flavor.
Get top local stories in DFW delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC DFW's News Headlines newsletter.
NBC DFW: A lot of wonderful actors - men and women - have played Lady Bracknell on stage and screen. Do you take any inspiration from these performances, or do you come to the role with a clean slate?
PTT: The only production I have ever seen is the original film with Edith Evans and her classic delivery, especially her 12 octave rendition of the line “A handbag?”. I’ve never seen the play. I know that many wonderful actors (Maggie Smith, Judy Dench, Brian Bedford, Ian McKellen, etc.) have played the role. I didn’t see those performances, but I do sometimes think of their cadences and pitch when I’m saying some of the lines. But really, I’m simply coming at it from as natural and character-driven a point of view as possible. The language is so rich, and the sentences are composed so brilliantly, all you really need to do is get out of your own way and say them. The fact that I get to say these lines in drag with a pompous British accent and play the antagonist of the piece is such a gift from Stage West. I’m having a ball with this cast and with our fabulous director, my friend Ashley Puckett-Gonzalez.
NBC DFW: This production is set in the 1980s. Who is Lady Bracknell in the 1980s? What does the Victorian era have in common with the 1980s?
The Scene
PTT: The play is a classic because it’s universal. Human behavior is very much based on sex and status, society, money, fashion, food and selfishness. Humans have not changed since the Victorian era. We are exactly the same as we were then. The 1980s were full of excess. Too much make-up, big shoulders, crazy hair, ridiculous wealth, greed. Lady Bracknell in 1980 is a society woman who frequents the best country club, attends the charity balls, has subscriptions to the theatre and the opera and the symphony and the museums. She was alive in the Victorian era, she was alive in the 1980s and she is alive today. She might be sitting next to you right now.
NBC DFW: You are famous (or infamous?) for playing Pinhead in Hellraiser: Judgement. Does Lady Bracknell have anything in common with Pinhead?
PTT: It’s hilarious that you’re asking me that. It never occurred to me until I read the question. I guess you could say they’re both sadists to different degrees. Pinhead’s sadism is quite intentional, whereas Lady Bracknell is simply a survivor who is oblivious to any pain she may cause other people. She simply wants what she wants, and she does whatever it takes to get it. Oh, and Bracknell and Pinhead both have a twisted sense of logic and exquisite taste in fashion.
NBC DFW: Of Lady Bracknell's famous lines, which is your favorite and why?
PTT: My favorite line, and this changes daily, is “No woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating.” It’s just so simple and timeless and ironic.
Learn more: Stage West
