'Handbagged' is a hit at Oldham Coliseum.

Handbagged, with its sharp humour and biting wit, was warmly welcomed to the stage at Oldham Coliseum this week.

The play, written by Moira Buffini and directed by Jo Newman, imagines what may have happened at the Queen’s infamous weekly meetings with Margaret Thatcher. The two women collide as they share their opposing views of Britain’s role in the world.

From the first moment on stage, Handbagged did not shy away from an honest portrayal of the history of Britain and its leader at the time. It is also a lot of fun with winks at the audience and complete knowledge from the characters on stage that they are indeed in a play. A great running joke includes the Queen wanting an interval and Thatcher refusing to acquiesce.

Young Thatcher (Alice Selwyn) and older Thatcher (Sarah Crowden) along with young Queen Elizabeth (Caroline Harker) and older Queen Elizabeth (Susan Penhaligon) mingle with each other on stage along with Actor 1 and 2 (Jahvel Hall and Andy Secombe) who play everyone from Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Geoffrey Howe and Dennis Thatcher.

Packed full of satirical humour, the play doesn’t let up and has a lot of fun imagining how the Queen and Thatcher would have interacted with each other in private as well as staging much more famous moments such as when a lengthy article about the Queen’s negative view on Thatcher’s leadership appeared in The Sunday Times in 1986.

The play also acknowledges the damage Thatcher wrought in the country and beyond, as Actors 1 and 2 break the current characters they are playing to demand she does not move past issues like the miner’s strikes and poll tax in small monologues to the audience, while both Thatchers demand that they resolutely move forward with no mention of it. This further deepens our understanding of her character and the reputation she gained as ‘The Iron Lady.’

A lot of the laughs are mined from the almost farcical nature of the two male actors simply named Actor 1 and Actor 2 who take on many different historical roles, but also play themselves as they talk about Thatcher while she is offstage or bicker between themselves on who gets to play who and their contracts. Both Hall and Secombe bounce well off each other and are absolutely brilliant from start to finish.

In fact, the whole cast is perfect, striking the right pitch between the comedic and deeper moments in the play and engaging the audience wonderfully. Crowden, Harker, Penhaligon and Selwyn play these incredibly famous women so truly, both in voice and physicality, that it was easy to forget there were actors on the stage and that many of these meetings are imagined. I can not say enough good things about the entire cast, they are incredibly talented and a joy to watch.

The Thatcher years were such a divisive time for Britain and I couldn’t help but notice the sincere engagement from the audience, especially those who had lived through it, it seemed all at once to be a most emotional and cathartic experience. The play also touched upon much larger themes of how people choose to remember themselves and their legacies and how the truth can blur with time and life experience and yet still feel like truth to that individual which can be both a blessing and a curse.

If you have no political knowledge or interest whatsoever, this may not be the production for you, but otherwise you will have a great time and maybe even learn a thing or two between laughs.

Handbagged is a production between Oldham Coliseum Theatre, Wiltshire Creative and York Theatre Royal. It is on at the Oldham Coliseum until Saturday June 1. For tickets visit www.coliseum.org.uk