MOIRA Buffini's entertaining conceit lets us eavesdrop – a fly on the fourth wall – as the Queen chats with Thatcher. They met weekly over tea for eleven years.
Director Lynne Foster fields a top team of six actors. Mrs T and HMQ have two each, allowing for amusing meta-theatrical exchanges. The men are relegated to minions, with two jobbing actors taking on a huge variety of walk-ons, from Hezza to the Gipper. They are impressively done by Mark Preston – Kenneth Kaunda and a convincing Nancy – and Kevin Stemp – Gerry Adams and both consorts.
Vocally, all four women are unnervingly accurate – Maggie's breathy sincerity, Liz's thin patrician. As the older Thatcher, Debbie Miles begins with an entirely convincing speech; Andrea Dalton is frighteningly forceful. Jane Smith is excellent as the grumpy, frumpy Queen, and Laura Hill engagingly plays the somewhat younger – in her fifties – monarch.
Buffini's piece is not just a history lesson, and not simply knockabout satire. Both the Monarch and her eighth Prime Minister are often sympathetically portrayed; the Brighton Bombing and the death of Mountbatten genuinely moving moments.
Michael Gray
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