It seemed likely that the revival of Handbagged, Moira Buffini’s 2010 satirical hit about the reputedly dicey relationship between the Queen and Margaret Thatcher, would be cancelled – and, on the day of the funeral, it was. The following day, I pitched up to the Kiln feeling hesitantly heretical: what would it be like to see the Queen impersonated after all those sober hours of contemplating her coffin on television?
As Marion Bailey stepped on stage, I could swear I spotted tears in her eyes. An exceptionally sympathetic actor, she made it possible, within seconds, to relax. Buffini’s play is, not unexpectedly, far more merciful to the Queen than to Mrs Thatcher, and in Bailey’s hands, satire came close to tribute. She brings sweetness, kindness and intelligence to the role. The Queen’s niceness becomes almost a moral quality. As she totters around in frumpy, apricot-coloured twinset, she looks about to purr, although also, at times, privately eye-rolling and tempted to growl at her prime minister’s intransigence. The Queen’s younger self, impressively played in parallel by Abigail Cruttenden, is politely concentrated yet frequently nonplussed by Thatcher. There are gentle jokes at the monarch’s expense – digs about her love of horses – but only one serious potshot. When the Queen is holding forth about poverty, Thatcher retorts in an exasperated aside that the Queen does not pay taxes.
