Handbagged – Wolverhampton Grand Theatre

I overhear the couple behind me, probably in their twenties. One says, “Did you get the references?” the other replies, “I’ve seen ‘The Crown’ so I get the gist…” I suddenly feel very old and the details of Moira Buffini’s play, which were once at the political forefront for all of us over fifty, seem strangely distant and tepid. The Miner’s Strike and Section 28, once viscerally crucial, are thrown into quaint relief by the Trumpian carnival currently erupting across the water. What was once breaking news is now the fading past. Those of us who got the references – and the play is stuffed with them; Heseltine’s hair, Howe’s dullness – are happily served but what of the pair behind me?

“Handbagged” appeared in its full form in 2014 within living memory of the events portrayed and only just after the death of Thatcher who is splendidly portrayed here by both Morag Cross and Emma Ernest. Why a double dose of the Iron Lady is not entirely clear. She managed to occasionally interrogate, justify and contradict herself but beyond that it seems a mere quirk. This is a play within a play, of course, and characters merrily break the fourth wall commenting on the action, arguing about who plays who providing of fractured narrator’s role of sorts. The Queen once more doubles up as Sarah Moyle and Helen Reuben and is a delight to watch. The dialogue is compelling, the sparks fly and the ball bounces from character to characters at times poignantly, at times hilariously.

The play replays each and everything famous line, quote and speech in a strict chronological order reproducing the politics without necessarily taking a strong position on any of it. The actors play actors haggling with each other over the morality of Thatcher’s action, but they mostly feel slightly miffed rather than channelling the violent opposition and passion it once evoked. But then with actors too young to have lived the experience can they now only reproduce the history?

Cassius Konneh and Dennis Herdman are left the rich pickings of everyone else in the world to play from Ronald Reagan to Kenneth Clarke to Rupert Murdoch and undertake them all with aplomb, joy and fun. This is a very funny play, full of joyful comedy all deftly played, but I do wonder what is the point of doing it now?

Perhaps it’s this. Noticeably throughout there were mutterings, grunts, sighs, tuts. The audience wanted to talk to the play, to respond to the assertions and declarations of Thatcher. We’re a democracy. It’s what we do, but we didn’t get a word in. It’s Thatcher, it’s what she did.

Reviewer: Peter Kinnock

Reviewed: 27th February 2025

North West End UK Rating: