Writer: Moira Buffini
Director: Alex Thorpe
It’s over thirty years since her demise, but the mere mention of “Thatcher” can still divide a room in seconds. 
Even in its earliest incarnations, Moira Buffini’s play dealt with events that were remote from many of the audience’s direct experience, and this is even more the case now.
As one awaits the start, one can’t help noticing the almost Brechtian feel to designer Katie Lias’ almost empty stage – there’s a dais in the centre, a couple of racks of clothes that the supporting cast will use to create the myriad of characters they play, while the back wall is clearly visible with the ropes of the fly system anchored there. Lighting designer Ryan Day provides harsh monochromatic lighting with high contrast – there’s no hiding place here. We have a cast of six – two are just credited as Actor 1 (Cassius Konneh) and Actor 2 (Dennis Herdman) who between them cover, well, everyone who isn’t Queen Elizabeth II or Mrs Thatcher herself, including an almost seductive turn by Konneh as Nancy Reagan. Maybe denying these characters names is intended to echo Mrs Thatcher’s reported attitude towards the men she was surrounded by.
The Brechtian feel is reinforced by having Actors 1 and 2 especially frequently break character and address the audience and each other. This partly helps the audience to keep track of the parts they play, but also enables some very conscious filling in of the background for younger, less knowledgeable audience members – at one point Konneh remarks that events in 1984 were probably before some audience members were born – without descending into mini-lectures. Actor 1’s point-blank refusal to voice Enoch Powell’s more vile output and their joint declaiming of Neil Kinnock’s prescient “I warn you” speech of 1983 are both incredibly powerful.
But maybe more unusual is that we have two actors playing each of the late Queen and Mrs Thatcher. Sarah Moyle and Helen Reuben are obviously older and younger versions of the Queen, with Reuben’s version crisp and correct and Moyle’s rather more down-to-earth. Moyle frequently gives voice to what Buffini imagines the Queen’s conscience might say or gives us sharp one-liners. But while Morag Cross and Emma Ernest appear to be similarly intended as older and younger versions of Mrs T, they are identically dressed and very much appear to be identical characters. Maybe we are subtly being told that she was definitely not for turning and that her attitudes and outlook did not change with experience nor the passage of time. In any case, what this conceit does enable is for Buffini to take us inside the (imagined) world of each woman’s head and provide an internal monologue for them. It also drives some of the dry wit of the script with, at times, jokes enabled as one character gives a commentary on her counterpart. Indeed, a strength of the play is its pace and the excellent comic timing by all of the ensemble, with the two-hour running time flying by.
The whole does have a feeling of a sketch show, as Buffini necessarily has to cherry-pick which incidents to reimagine. All of the characterisations of people of the times – even those who only get a line or two – are fully realised and uncanny in their accuracy, memorably including Herdman’s hair-flicking Michael Heseltine and sheep-that-turned Douglas Howe, all of which bring wry smiles to many in the audience.
This was only the second week of the tour and there were some minor issues – a couple of hesitances with lines and microphones that weren’t always active when they should be – but these did not detract and will, no doubt, be ironed out during the run.
One has to ask, however, ‘why now?’ Surely, the 1980s were a different country where they did things differently? And here’s the rub: Director Alex Thorpe has skilfully taken the references to the past and, with no apparent effort, made the whole ring true to today. One cannot help but see parallels with the global political situation in today’s post-truth society, and it’s pretty chilling.
The whole works and as a comedy, it’s sharp as a tack. Whether you recall those times or not, behind the laughs is a powerful message that remains relatable and continues to resonate.
Runs until 1 March 2025 and on tour
