Between 1979 and 1990 Great Britain was in the unique position worldwide of having a woman as both head of government and head of state. The Queen and Prime Minister Thatcher would meet on a regular basis and Moira Buffini’s play Handbagged charts the largely imagined relationship between the two women and its progress over the years – two women who, although born within a few months of each other, could not be more different. Margaret Thatcher came to power by using ruthlessness, political savvy, a willingness to dispose of opponents, whereas the monarchy achieved its power by…err …well, the same really – but that was a long time ago.

This was a case of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. Each woman was confident in her position and status, arrogant even, and neither would yield to the other. But was this play all about the long established British monarchy and the new political kid on the block – or was it just an excuse, a vehicle for a good comedy? The latter I suspect. Although the play took us chronologically through those eleven years touching on all the major incidents, the piece never let a fact get in the way of a good laugh.

And, as if one pair of formidable ladies was not enough, we were lucky to have two Queens and two Margaret Thatchers. The way in which the play was structured gave us a latter-day Queen and Mrs T observing, and commenting on, their younger selves throughout their joint reign – by the end of her term, as we all know, Mrs T adopted the royal “we”. All the other parts (Dennis Thatcher, Prince Philip, Michael Heseltine, Ronald Reagan et al) were played by two actors.

These actors, Asif Kahn and Richard Teverson were almost the best thing in the show. It was another clever device by Ms Buffini as they were virtually being themselves, employed to play as cast. There was confusion at times about who they were supposed to be, with Mrs T asking Teverson at one point if he was her husband Dennis or somebody else. The actors were sometimes reluctant to take on their assigned roles, often squabbling between themselves. For some reason they were both very keen to play Neil Kinnock, resulting in a verbal battle of the Kinnocks which became a sort of demented Under Milk Wood. Kahn was also, reluctantly, cast as Nancy Reagan in which part he was almost convincing – nice legs, pity about the beard.

But, of course, the main acting credits went to the ladies. Emma Handy and Sanchia McCormack were excellent as the younger grande dames, but it was Kate Fahy as the frighteningly believable older Mrs Thatcher and Susie Blake as the grumpy Queen that were the focus of our attention. Susie Blake’s Queen was there on sufferance, with lots of impatient asides to the audience, believing the whole thing was beneath her and demanding an interval half-way through and then complaining about the refreshments provided back-stage. Brilliant.

These are two women and indeed institutions on which we all have opinions. Whatever our political bias and views on the monarchy, Handbagged gave us a few insights and a lot of laughs, revealing once again that the more serious the subject, the funnier it can be. Creative, imaginative and original theatre at its best.   ★★★★★   Michael Hasted at the Everyman, Cheltenham on 17^th November 2015