Handbagged - Vaudeville Theatre

Tricycle's 'Handbagged' had 'West End transfer' written all over it. Indeed, come April the acclaimed production will do just that - the first play to do so under Indhu Rubasingham’s tenure as Artistic Director. To mark the moment, Tricycle is offering top price seats (worth up to £52) for just £30 in the early weeks of the run provided you book via their website.

A play about a prime minister's relationship with a monarch. Haven't we been here before? Yes, of course, this is territory trodden by Dame Helen Mirren in The Audience. Moira Buffini's comedy speculates on the same question: what did these two most powerful women of the 20th century, born six months apart, talk about in their weekly meetings behind closed palace doors? In fact, 'Handbagged' got there first with this device. Buffini's play is an expanded version of a shorter piece she wrote for the Tricycle's 2010 project, Women, Power and Politics. Two Thatchers and two Queens are on stage at all times. This device adds another dimension, allowing the characters to consult themselves in a way which is very quickly accepted by the audience.