Moira Buffini’s Handbagged is a raucous comedy that speculates about the relationship between the Queen and Mrs Thatcher. The play visits the Midlands this month after enjoying rave reviews in the West End.

Moira here talks to What’s On about the show, the subject of women in politics and her commitment to ‘monsterism’ - a movement campaigning for theatres to commission more large-scale work from new writers... 

What first got you interested in the relationship between Margaret Thatcher and the Queen?

I was asked to write a play as part of a season at Tricycle Theatre called Women, Power And Politics. I knew I was going to write about Thatcher, but I didn't want to write about Thatcher and men. Right from the start, she made sure there were no women in her cabinet, so the only longstanding, political relationship she had with another woman was with the Queen.

As you started researching, did you find more similarities or differences between them?

Looking at them on paper, you'd think there must be similarities. They were both born in the same year, lived through the war, had very strong relationships with their fathers, and are very traditional in many ways and completely groundbreaking in others. But in terms of their actual personalities, I think they're chalk and cheese. For example, the Queen is well known for her sense of humour, and Mrs Thatcher didn't really have one. They're very different in the way they deal with people. 

What kind of a relationship do you think they had?

The animosity between them is well-documented. And yet, it was complicated, because Thatcher revered the Queen. She was a real royalist, and I think she was terribly disappointed that the Queen didn't really like her or agree with her. 

How did you find the experience of writing about real people as opposed to fictional characters?

I loved doing all the research and being able to use words they really said, as well as trying to write between the lines. It's quite irreverent. I think my feelings about Mrs Thatcher are clear, but I did feel a great obligation to be fair. It's the first time I've done it, but I don't think it'll be the last.

Did writing Handbagged change your perspective on them at all?

It's certainly made me more respectful of the Queen. It's made me... admire some of Mrs Thatcher's personal qualities. And I can admire her conviction politics without supporting what she did. 

Mrs Thatcher very much made her views known, whereas the royals have a much more neutral public image. Was it difficult writing the Queen?

What I found with Mrs Thatcher was that everybody wanted to tell me their Thatcher story, but when it comes to the Queen, everyone's really circumspect. There are far fewer books and resources about the Queen, and publicly she's not allowed to declare her own opinions about anything. So I thought it would be much harder to write her, but actually I found it great fun imagining the private behind the public persona. Her character is much more of a work of imagination, but wherever I've been able to get facts, or quotes, or anything - even hearsay - I’ve used it. 

Mrs Thatcher died a few months before the full-length version debuted. Did that affect the finished play?

Absolutely. I did the bulk of the work during a residency at Tricycle Theatre, and she died just days into that, so I began it watching her funeral and seeing how much all of that old division was still there. I wanted to explain to my own children why people hated and revered this woman so much. 

Do you see any similarities between her government and our current Conservative leadership?

I'm not sure Mrs Thatcher would approve of the current government. She was never a fan of old Etonians. She was a revolutionary in her party, and the people she liked were working class Tories like Norman Tebbitt and John Major. I think she'd be quite shocked at what her policies have done.

The subject of women and politics has been in the news again lately. Do you think we've moved on at all since then?

I think change has happened, but the battle is still on. It's still a very male world run along male lines, and female politicians have to cope with much more abuse - often about petty things like what kind of shoes they wear or how low their neckline is, rather than about their policies. But there are a lot more women in politics now. Even the Conservative party has got a female Home Secretary, which you couldn't imagine happening in Thatcher's day. But then, no one could imagine Thatcher happening in Thatcher's day!

You're known for writing stories with focal female characters, and in this case, you're writing about mature women. Do you think there's still a lack of stories being told from those perspectives?

Yes, definitely. One of the joys of watching Handbagged is seeing four fantastic actresses in one play, talking about global politics and being really brilliant and funny. There's an amazing generation of female writers coming up, and things will change, but currently I'm still among the ten to fifteen per cent of screenwriters who are women. I think there are so many interesting stories not being told because of the gender of the tellers. 

You're part of the ‘monsterist’ playwrights' movement which started some years ago. Do you think it's been successful in achieving its aims?

I do. I think the landscape is really changing, and there's a new generation of writers getting exposure on big stages. We've still got further to go, but if new writers aren't given big stages and big budgets, we'll lose a generation of writers who are able to write plays of scale, and not just little plays to be put on in black boxes. We've got to be able to fill big theatres with new work about people living in our world and dealing with our issues, otherwise they'll just become heritage boxes and will slowly die. There will always be companies specialising in heritage theatre, but even The Globe and the RSC are putting on far more new work and allowing writers big budgets now.