Handbagged
Tricycle Theatre
London NW6
Four stars

Originally written in 2009 as a short play in the Tricycle Theatre's Women, Politics and Power season, Moira Buffini's Handbagged returns to the venue in a more substantial production, directed again by Inda Subasingam.

This vibrant exploration of Margaret Thatcher's character and legacy is revealed through regular audiences with Queen Elizabeth in Buckingham Palace, where she accounts for government policies and actions.

There was no scarcity of grim agenda items of course in the 1980s - mass unemployment, riots, slavish adherence to US foreign intervention, war, privatisation, attacks on trades unions, press abuse, the undermining of democratic institutions, cuts, cuts and more cuts. How times have changed.

In a clever theatrical device, older and younger versions of Thatcher appear alongside similar representations of the queen.

The woman who wrecked Britain was infamously described as having "the eyes of Caligula and the mouth of Marilyn Monroe" by the salivating French president Francois Mitterrand and nowhere is this more accurately represented than on the Tricycle stage.

As the older, defeated but obdurate Iron Lady coexists with the younger and compulsively obsessive "Mags," perched on the threshold of her 13-year reign of terror, Stella Gonet and Fenella Woolgar provide uncannily accurate, contrasting and complementary representations of Thatcher. Marion Bailey as the older queen gives a visually convincing and sympathetic portrayal as the monarch who has seen it all and who wryly and royally puts up with the ebb and flow of prime ministerial visitation.

Yet there is markedly less opportunity for contrast with the younger Liz (Clare Holman) and this inhibits the dynamics of the piece.

Even so, while the other characters exist to expose Thatcher's character flaws and reveal her vanities, arrogance and unflinching adherence to neoconservative dogma, it is a strength of the production that they are so well written and performed.

In a fictional conceit the queen comes across as a mischievous, playful and canny old bird who ultimately shows the door to the departing and defeated Thatcher. She may be the compassionate and sympathetic soul envisaged by Buffini - this is, after all, the dramatic licence afforded by comic theatre.

In a production enhanced by the impeccable timing from the six-strong cast, sterling support is provided by Jeff Rawle who not only plays Denis Thatcher but dons the multiple identities of Ronald Reagan, Geoffrey Howe, Rupert Murdoch and Michael Heseltine with confident aplomb.

Neet Moham as the royal footman does a splendid Kenneth Kaunda too and it's a neat touch that both actors regularly step out of character to illuminate the finer details of recent history.

Highly recommended.

Runs until November 16. Box office: (020) 7328-1000.