Handbagged

by Moira Buffini

I've spent a lifetime in the ebb and flow of powerIt brings its giftsBut then it's an intoxicantOne must beware lest one consumes too muchThe monarch.Her most powerful subject.Two women meet once a week for eleven years. One believes there is no such thing as society. The other has vowed to serve it.Moira Buffini's wickedly funny hit comedy imagines what the world's most powerful women, Margaret Thatcher and Queen Elizabeth II, talked about behind closed palace doors.Winner of the 2014 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre, Handbagged was first performed in September 2013 and returned to Kiln Theatre, London, in September 2022.'A phenomenon.' Sunday Telegraph'Perfectly pitched between the comic and the serious.' Guardian

Genres: Plays, 21st Century, Drama

128 pages, Paperback

First published October 3, 2013

About the author

Moira Buffini (born 1965) is an English dramatist, director, and actor.

She was born in Carlisle to Irish parents, and studied English and Drama at Goldsmiths. She subsequently trained as an actor at the Welsh College of Music and Drama.

For Jordan, co-written with Anna Reynolds in 1992, she won a Time Out Award for her performance and Writers' Guild Award for Best Fringe play. Her 1997 play Gabriel was performed at Soho theatre, winning the LWT Plays on Stage award. Her 1999 play Silence earned Buffini the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for best English-language play by a woman. Loveplay followed at the RSC in 2001, then Dinner at the National Theatre in 2003 which transferred to the West End and was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Comedy.

Buffini wrote Dying For It, a free adaptation of Nikolai Erdman's classic, The Suicide, for the Almeida in 2007. She followed it with Marianne Dreams, a dance play with choreographer Will Tuckett, based on Catherine Storr's book. Her play for young people, A Vampire Story was performed as part of NT Connections in 2008.

Buffini is said to advocate big, imaginative plays rather than naturalistic soap opera dramas, and is a founder member of the Monsterists, a group of playwrights who promote new writing of large scale work in the British theatre. She has been described by David Greig as a metaphysical playwright. All her plays have been published by Faber.

Buffini is also a prolific screenwriter. In 2010 her film adaptation of Posy Simmon's Tamara Drewe was released followed by her adaptation of Jane Eyre for BBC Films and Ruby Films in 2011. The script appeared on the 2008 Brit List, a film-industry-compiled list of the best unproduced screenplays in British film. It received nine votes, putting it in second place. Buffini also adapted her play A Vampire Story for the screenplay of Neil Jordan's film Byzantium released in 2013.

She took part in the Bush Theatre's 2011 project Sixty Six for which she wrote a piece based upon a chapter of the King James Bible.

- Wikipedia

Reviews

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[Chambers Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

A couple of months ago I saw The Audience by Peter Morgan at the National Theatre. Hellen Mirren was perfect as Queen Elizabeth II. I especially loved her scenes with Margaret Thatcher.
So when I heard there was another play about Queen Elizabeth and Margaret Thatcher playing on the West End I was puzzled.
Seems like too much of a good thing.
Then I read Handbagged and in many ways I liked it better than The Audience.
It's a lot funnier.
And a lot more theatrical.

[Tom Romig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes, of course nobody was privy to the weekly conversations between Margaret Thatcher and Queen Elizabeth, but Moira Buffini can imagine, based on the public demeanors, words, and actions of the two women what those talks might have been like. Depth and perspective is enhanced by Ms. Buffini's clever and convincing device to have two Queens, two Iron Ladies. Each is represented by a younger and older version of herself, which allows for a revealing and often comic four-way dialogue. Two male actors ably portray a slew of other figures, but it's the women who command the stage.

[Juliette II · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recommend this more as a good read than a play you should stage. Requires a fairly solid understanding of Margaret Thatcher’s time as PM to fully grasp the commentary, and therefore may not be enjoyable for all audiences. I would still buy a ticket.

Does a great job humanizing these women while holding them 💯 accountable for their choices, which is refreshing and necessary. The figures who loom large rarely leave a black or white legacy and it’s important to understand context, motivation and perspective.

[Paul Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this. Reminded me of Peter Morgan’s ‘The Meeting’ about the Queen’s various meetings with the PM’s.

Great quotes
‘If I die a violent death - the violence will be in the thought of my assassin, not in my dying’ - Indira Gandhi

[Elizabeth Kosmetatou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very original and funny.