"Handbagged" by Moira Buffini.

Ashby Dramatic Society.

Venture Theatre, Ashby de la Zouche.

Although nothing has been written down and recorded for posterity, this play indicates what the conversations may have been like between The Queen and Margaret Thatcher in their weekly meetings at Buckingham Palace. Given their public persona this at first glance, may not seem the most interesting of plays. But how wrong you may be.....

The play shows The Queen as having a sharp and wicked sense of humour who at times seemed bored in the presence of Mrs T, zoning in and out of the conversation. Mrs Thatcher was serious throughout and the only time she neared cracking a joke, she denied it vehemently. It's rather nice to see The Queen portrayed as having a fun and humorous outlook as well as being laid back, and, even though I'm not a royalist, I'd love to think that her Maj was really like this behind closed doors.

The period covers the whole of the Thatcher years in just over two hours and, I felt, depicts both female icons as powerful but likeable women, but as I said at the start this is not re-told from literal records and is just in the imaginary story-telling of the author, Moira Buffini. But whose to say this isn't a true picture of what they were like behind closed doors?

"Handbagged", by the way, was coined by Margaret Thatcher early into her term of office as a symbol of her power and a political prop.

Maggie, in her later years is played by Mel Mitchell and absolutely captures the elder PM. The look, the voice and the physicality is all there. In Maggie's later years her voice developed a lower timbre and slightly more soothing and that has been captured by Mel.

The younger Maggie is played by Rachel Wallis. Again, the look, voice and physicality have all been nailed, and we see an altogether more ruthless, power-hungry Prime Minister, but lacking the Queen's sense of humour. There's a line from the Queen that shows she has spotted a "joke" from Maggie, although Maggie's comment was not meant to be funny at all.

The older Queen Elizabeth is played by Norma Morris-Chapman, and Norma shows us a Queen with a dry sense of humour, and again, an all-over softer persona.

The younger Elizabeth is played by Jo Coupe, and matches Maggie's energy but also has a lovely clipped accent that is so reminiscent of the younger Queen.

Ron Ghosh plays the role of a Palace Footman who only strays from the Queen's throne side to introduce the scenes in a brilliantly dry way, matching his employer's dry sense of humour.

Paul Smith plays another palace footman, as well as Nancy Raegan, yes you did read that right. Looking a bit like Tim Healey's character, Les, in "Benidorm", Paul is a well rounded actor, shall we say, and that played to the Nancy Raegan role, especially with one line which commented on how thin she was, which caused a brilliant response from the audience.

Phil Deakin is the only cast member that I have seen before on stage. Phil plays a plethora of characters with various costumes, wigs and accents including Enoch Powell, Kenneth Kuanda, Kenneth Clarke, Neil Kinnock, a Protestor, Gerry Adams, Ronald Raegan, Arthur Scargill, Rupert Murdoch and Prince Phillip. Always great fun to see Phil perform in any role and here we are treated to several.

David Hare plays Denis Thatcher, Peter Carrington, Michael Heseltine, Geoffrey Howe and Michael Shea. While his characters are presented with such comic skills, I also found David, outside of these characters, a very funny actor. he obviously has funny bones!

There are some lovely banter sketches between David and Phil in between the characters, and some comical breaking of the fourth wall. Even Queen Elizabeth told Maggie that what was said would go no further than the three walls.

It's writing like this that makes this play such a humorous piece of theatre and such a joy to see. I have no real political leanings but can appreciate the political humour that seamlessly makes this play such a lovely comedy.

The play is produced and directed by Terry Hammond and Anna Golden. The theatre, which I have never been to before, is centred as an "in the round" setting which makes addressing the audience very easy. I have a feeling that some of the falling over the words actually make this play even better because the flow came over more natural. Maybe this is how Terry and Anna intended the flow of the script to be. Either way, it worked for me. The flow of the script has been well observed and executed, and both Directors have ensured that the comedy elements have been showcased excellently by the cast.

The costumes, provided by Mary Barker are absolutely wonderful, especially those for the Queens and the Maggies.

 Another aspect of this play I really appreciated were that the wigs and make up for the male characters were not perfect and we saw the skull caps below the wigs. This is another brilliant comedy side of the play. So many times we see a play and the wigs are perfectly applied. this takes me back to watching some of the old variety shows where they have impressionists who do a quick fire costume and wig change and they "deliberately" have wigs on cock eyed. This aspect created an additional seam of comedy.

The wigs for Maggie were wonderfully coiffured into the style that we recognise for the PM. The wigs for Queen Elizabeth looked slightly as if they had been pulled backwards through a hedge. That in itself made me smile as we all think of the Queen as having been styled, but the image we saw on opening night made the Queen such a fun character. You can imagine from this script that the Queen may just have enjoyed sitting in front of some quiz show, hair in curlers with a drink in one hand and a fag in the other. Wouldn't that be fun? Or is that me reading more into the People's Royal Favourite than I should be.

Sound design and operation is by Martin Pritchard. Carefully cued sound effects and music sound bites make the play an even more interesting viewing.

Lighting design is by Paul Smith, and operated by Griffin Bayley. Just one blackout that should not have been there, but this was opening night, so forgiven. The fade to black to close the scenes gave Ron Ghosh, who also designed the set, chance to move into position for the fade up, dividing the scenes and making introductions to the upcoming scenes almost seamless.

Stage management, when performed in the round and where there are several entrance and exit points, can not be the easiest of jobs but Stage Manager, Nicky Miller, and Assistant Stage Manager, Peter Robson made this style of performance look very smooth.

There's some unpolitically correct comments, ironic as this is partly about politics, but all the same a very funny play which paints a different picture of both women to the one that the public image depicts. It knocks a lot of the sharp edges off of Thatcher and presents the Queen in a rounder, more jovial image we may have had of her. A play not to take too serious though and for entertainment purposes only!

"Handbagged" is at The Venture Theatre in Ashby de la Zouch until Saturday 16 March, and then from Wednesday 20 March until Saturday 23 March. Best parking, for those who don't know the area, is at the Library car park at the bottom of North Street, and is free after 5pm.