Handbagged: Review

The success of The Crown tells us there is plenty of dramatic opportunity in any story about the late Queen as well as a healthy audience for it. Recently Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) too has been getting more attention from dramatists, being the focus of a major new Channel 4 drama ‘Brian and Maggie’ earlier this year.

So perhaps the time is right for a revival of Moira Buffini’s 2013 play, Handbagged which puts both women centre stage, setting sparks flying even before the opening by giving them equal billing. For while Queen Elizabeth II is remembered with great fondness, Baroness Thatcher’s legacy could still win her the role of Wicked Witch of the West.

Katie Lias’ staging quickly sets things straight with a huge coin displaying the monarch’s head overhanging a smaller circular stage, representing the revolving wheel of parliamentary power.

The play centres on the weekly meetings of the monarch and Prime Minister during Thatcher’s three terms in office between 1979 and 1990. Of course, the sharp one-liners are all the work of the Cheshire-born playwright, because no-one living knows what was said. But it is fun to imagine what might have gone on behind closed doors. And even if we can’t imagine the pair scuffling over a chair, with the Queen forcing Thatcher to take a seat, it makes for a funny sketch. Looking for common ground the Queen muses: ‘If she’s got a dog, we’ve got a subject’. Sadly, she didn’t.

If this is rewriting history, then the play cleverly shows us we can all be guilty of that over time, with juxtaposition of the young and old Liz and Mags, who frequently contradict not just each other, but their younger selves.

History tells us the two didn’t always see eye to eye – like when the Queen used her 1981 Christmas speech to speak out in a gentle but damning way against government policy on Northern Ireland, unemployment and treatment of migrants. And several years later there was a Sunday Times front page story expressing an insider’s view of the monarch’s supposed dismay at her uncaring government.

It feels like the 1980s are now far enough away to be ripe for period drama. And here director, Alex Thorpe gives greater weight to narrating the historical context than building a picture of the relationship between the two women. Perhaps this is necessary for a younger audience, but at times it feels heavy-handed at the expense of the comedy. This fresh interpretation also features new music composed for the show, a cappella singing, and remixed pop classics. However, this in itself creates historical confusion – The Cranberries’ ‘Zombie’ is a protest song about the IRA bomb in Warrington which happened during John Major’s premiership.

Thank goodness for Liz, played with lightness and spark by Helen Ruben, who comes through the audience greeting her subjects with a warm, ‘How do you do.’ Sarah Moyle as an older Elizabeth, also helps to keep the action on the right side of comic, winning the audience from the off with her Royal wave and wry delivery.

Emma Ernest and Morag Cross, as younger and older Mrs T, are clearly painted as villains in this production yet manage to bring some humanity to their caricatured roles.

From butlers to government ministers, Cassius Konneh and Dennis Herdman work their socks off to set the wider context, playing a whole host of other faces from the era from Kenneth Kaunda to Nancy Reagan.

In all, it is a mashed-up romp through the 1980s and, like mixed memories from not necessarily the best of times, certainly got the Lowry audience talking as they left.

Handbagged is at Lowry, Salford from 18-22 March 2025 before continuing on tour. Age recommendation 14+