It was instructive to see how the predominantly British audience reacted to playwright Moira Buffini’s “Handbagged” (which we saw last summer), not only because of how skillfully director Indhu Rubasingham examined the relationship of Queen Elizabeth II and former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, but also because the imaginative play featured younger and older versions of the handbag-carrying characters interacting with one another on the intimate 690-seater Vaudeville Theatre stage in London.
Understandably, Rubasingham’s production was a harder and more delicate balancing act to pull off, because it came on the heels of Peter Morgan’s “The Audience,” which also centered on the weekly audiences given by the Queen to prime ministers since her accession in 1952. After all, the latter show had Oscar and Olivier winner, Helen Mirren, in the lead.
The play’s “stiff upper lip” sensibility—in its politics and sense of humor—was instantly recognizable to “outsiders,” as it peeked into and poked fun at the uneasy dynamic between two of the world’s most influential women, who began seeing each other in 1979 and ended when the longest-serving (and only female) British Prime Minister resigned in 1990.
HOLMAN, GONET, BAILEY AND WOOLGAR. Delicate balancing act.
While mostly speculative, the production, which has been expanded from its original one-act form, is a provocative meditation on history—and how time “refines” our rough edges, as exemplified by the young and strong-willed Thatcher’s (Fenella Woolgar) aversion to small talk and gossip, and how the so-called Iron Lady (Stella Gonet) “softened” through the years.
For her part, the elderly monarch (Marion Bailey) argues not only with Margaret, but also with her younger self (Clare Holman) when they recall their reactions to crucial moments in history—from apartheid Africa to her country’s policy-altering elections.
You don’t always understand what the characters are laughing or bickering about (some of the details are “too British”), but Jeff Rawle and Neet Mohan—who play all the other, transient characters (Nancy Reagan, opposition leader Neil Kinnock, Margaret’s husband Denis, et al.)—bring the audience up to speed on the issues being discussed, and help the play’s narrative threads come together and move along.
At one point, the queen says of Maggie, “For a Methodist, she’s remarkably unchristian!” They disagree, “endure” their differences, cut into each other’s lines, and even break the fourth wall to drive home a point—but, at the same time, they respect the other woman’s grace and strength of character.