Handbagged
Kiln | ★★★★★

Moira Buffini’s hugely enjoyable fly-on-the-wall play which imagines the weekly encounters between the late Queen and the later Margaret Thatcher has been transformed by the death of Elizabeth II.

The play, first seen nearly a decade ago, is mostly made up of course. But that doesn’t mean it’s not true.

Marion Bailey (Q), Abigail Cruttenden (Liz), Naomi Frederick (Mags), Kate Fahy (T). pic by Tristram Kenton

Marion Bailey, Abigail Cruttenden, Naomi Frederick and Kate Fahy

In this revival of Indhu Rubasingham’s production you can feel the constitutional strain that resulted when this country’s elected leader met its anointed head of state. But what makes the meetings with Thatcher so fascinating is witnessing what happens when our most divisive prime minister meets our most unifying monarch. It’s social cohesion verses social upheaval.

More than that who could deny the poignancy of hearing the particular kind of posh that was uniquely the sound of the Queen’s voice with her opening line (spoken by Marion Bailey), “You look as if you need a chair,” she says, dragging one across the floor to waiting Margaret Thatcher. That much may have been made up.