The play depicted the life of Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587, reigned 1542-1567), and Lansbury played one of the queen's ladies-in-waiting. She made her theatrical debut in the school's production of the play 'Mary of Scotland' (1933) by Maxwell Anderson (1888-1959). In 1940, Lansbury started her acting education at the Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art, located in Kensington, West London. Angela learned how to play the piano, and received a musical education at the Ritman School of Dancing. She regularly visited the local cinema, and imagined herself in various roles. During these years, she became interested in films. From 1934 to 1939, Angela was a student at South Hampstead High School. The widowed Moyna Macgill soon became engaged to Leckie Forbes, a Scottish colonel. Angela reportedly retreated into 'playing characters', as a coping mechanism to deal with the loss. In 1935, Edgar Lansbury died from stomach cancer.

They spend their weekends vacationing in a farm located in Berrick Salome, a village in South Oxfordshire. In 1930, they moved to a house located in the Mill Hill neighborhood of north London. During the first five years of Angela's life, the Lansbury family lived in a flat located in Poplar. Lansbury's mother was Irish film actress Moyna Macgill (1895-1975), originally from Belfast. He was the second Communist mayor in British history, the first being Joe Vaughan (1878-1938). Edgar served as Honorary Treasurer of the East London Federation of Suffragettes (term 1915), and Mayor of Poplar (term 1924-1925). Her father was socialist politician Edgar Isaac Lansbury (1887-1935), a member of both the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and the Labour Party. A prominent family of the upper middle class living in the Regent's Park neighborhood of London.

Spellbound Cinderella by Angela Ford