With Zodwa Nyoni’s The Darkest Part of the Night currently running at Kiln Theatre, Artistic Director Indhu Rubasingham today announces the full company for her major revival of Moira Buffini’s critically acclaimed Handbagged. Reprising their roles are Marion Bailey as ‘Q’, an Older Queen Elizabeth II and Kate Fahy as ‘T’, an Older Margaret Thatcher, and they are joined by Romayne Andrews (Actor 1), Richard Cant (Actor 2), Abigail Cruttenden (Liz) and Naomi Frederick (Mags).
The original production opened at the Theatre in 2013 before transferring to the West End’s Vaudeville Theatre in 2014, ahead of a UK tour in 2015, and performances in New York and Washington in 2019.
Kiln Theatre presents
HANDBAGGED
by Moira Buffini
9 September – 22 October 2022
Press night: 15 September 2022 at 7pm
Directed by Indhu Rubasingham; Designer Richard Kent; Lighting Designer Oliver Fenwick;
Sound Designer Carolyn Downing; Casting Director Briony Barnett CDG
Following the sell-out 2013 season and subsequent West End and New York runs The Queen and the Iron Lady are reuniting on the Kiln stage.
The monarch.
Her most powerful subject.
Born six months apart, each had a destiny that would change the world. But when the stiff upper lip softened and the gloves came off, which one had the upper hand?
Indhu Rubasingham directs the timely return of Moira Buffini’s wickedly funny hit-comedy that imagines what the world’s most powerful women Margaret Thatcher and Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth II, talked about behind closed palace doors.
Romayne Andrews plays Actor 1. For theatre, his work includes Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Mischief Theatre), Princess & The Hustler (Eclipse Theatre Company), King Lear (RSC and BAM), Hamlet (RSC and Kennedy Center) and A Fox on the Fairway (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch); and for television, Breeders.
Marion Bailey reprises her role as ‘Q’, an older Queen Elizabeth II. Her theatre work includes The Deep Blue Sea, Blurred Lines, Grief (National Theatre), A Kind of Alaska (Bristol Old Vic), Death of a Salesman (West Yorkshire Playhouse), for Shared Experience: Mine, War & Peace, Kindertransport (Hampstead Theatre), The Arab Israeli Cookbook, Dance of Death (Kiln Theatre / Tricycle), Incomplete and Random Acts of Kindness, Blessed be the Tie, This is a Chair (Royal Court), Cloud Nine (The Old Vic), and Holes In The Skin (Chichester Festival Theatre). For television, her work includes All the Light WE Cannot See, Damage, Shakespeare and Hathaway, The Dreamer, This is Going to Hurt, The Crown as The Queen Mother, Britannia, Temple, The Trials of Jimmy Rose, Him & Her, Being Human, Case Histories, Monday Monday, New Tricks, Persuasion, De-Railed, Cherished, Micawber, Shades, The Thing About Vince, Under the Sun and Shine On Harvey Moon. For film, Brighton Beach Scumbags, Peterloo, Dead in a Week, Allied, Lady in the Van, Mr Turner, I’ll Be There, Vera Drake, All or Nothing, Offending Angels, The Family Business, Nasty Neighbours, Psychotherapy, Meantime, Sakharov, Way Upstream, and Coppers.
Richard Cant returns to Kiln Theatre to play Actor 2 – he previously appeared in Wife. For theatre, his work includes The Normal Heart, Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear (National Theatre), Talent (Sheffield Theatres), After Edward, Edward the Second (Shakespeare’s Globe), Maydays, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing (RSC), Saint Joan (Donmar Warehouse), My Night with Reg (Donmar Warehouse/Apollo Theatre), Medea (Almeida Theatre), The Trial (Young Vic), War Horse (New London Theatre), Salome (Headlong), Troilus and Cressida, Cymbeline (Cheek by Jowl), Original Sin, The Country Wife (Sheffield Theatres), Other People (Royal Court Theatre), Pera Palas (Gate Theatre), The Canterbury Tales (Garrick Theatre) and Charley’s Aunt (York Theatre Royal). His television credits include The Crown, It’s a Sin, Silent Witness, Taboo, Outlander, Bleak House and The Way We Live Now; and for film, My Policeman, Mary Queen of Scots, Stan and Ollie, Sparkle, (Past Present Future) Imperfect and The Lawless Heart.
Abigail Cruttenden plays Liz. Her theatre work includes Swive (Shakespeare’s Globe), Black Chiffon (Park Theatre), Her Naked Skin (Salisbury Playhouse), An Enemy of the People, A Marvellous Year for Plums (Chichester Festival Theatre), Accolade (St James’ Theatre), Drawing the Line, 55 Days (Hampstead Theatre), The Seagull (Headlong), Benefactors, The Crucible (Sheffield Theatres), When Did You Last See My Mother? (Trafalgar Studios), The Knot of the Heart (Almeida Theatre), Afterlife, Flight (National Theatre), The Importance of Being Earnest (Birmingham Rep/The Old Vic), and Tartuffe (Playhouse Theatre). Her television work includes Not Going Out (as series regular Anna), Fresh Meat, The Outcast, The Royal Bodyguard, Benidorm (as series regular Kate Weedon), Sex and the City, Teenage Kicks, The Commander, Foyle’s War and The Robinsons; and for film, Munich: The Edge of War, Denial, Charlotte Gray, The Theory of Everything, Await Further Instructions and Hideous Kinky.
Kate Fahy plays ‘T’, an older Margaret Thatcher. For theatre her credits include A Lie of the Mind (Southwark Playhouse), Winter Solstice, Definitely the Bahamas (Orange Tree Theatre), After Electra (Kiln Theatre / Tricycle), The Goat (Almeida Theatre / Apollo Theatre), Copenhagen (Watford Palace Theatre), Grace, Gaucho and Sparrowfall (Hampstead Theatre), Seduced (Royal Court), Old Flames (Arts Theatre), A Doll’s House (Riverside Studios), Bouncing and Sunday Morning (National Theatre) and Othello (Young Vic). For television her work includes Don’t Forget the Driver, Witless, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, The Marriage of Reason and Squalor, Death in Paradise, Cherished, Pure Wickedness, The Best Man, The House of Elliott, The Jury, Trial and Retribution, The Mozart Inquest, Danton’s Death, Terra Nova, Oxbridge Blues, The Lodger and The Nearly Man. For film, Marriage of Reason and Squalor, Archipelago, Defiance, Brilliance, The Show, The Living and The Dead, The Fourth Angel, Somewhere Sometime.
Naomi Frederick returns to Kiln Theatre to play Mags – she previously appeared in White Teeth for the company. Her other theatre work includes The Book of Dust – La Belle Sauvage (Bridge Theatre), Agnes Colander, The Mentor and Hobson’s Choice (Theatre Royal Bath), The Heresy of Love, Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe), Made in Dagenham (Adelphi Theatre), Emil and the Detectives, Mrs Affleck, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, The Mandate (National Theatre), The Winslow Boy (The Old Vic), The Master Builder (Chichester Festival Theatre) and Measure for Measure (National Theatre and Complicité – Ian Charles Award 2nd Prize). For television, her work includes Belgravia, Inspector George Gently, Virtuoso, My Family, On Expenses, and The Trial of Tony Blair; and for film, Father Christmas is Back, The Aftermath and The Children’s Act.
Moira Buffini‘s plays include NW Trilogy (Kiln Theatre), Handbagged (Kiln Theatre / Tricycle / West End / US), Manor (National Theatre), Gabriel (Soho Theatre / UK Tour), wonder.land (MIF / National Theatre), Welcome to Thebes, A Vampire Story (National Theatre), Dying For It, Marianne Dreams (Almeida Theatre), Dinner (RNT Loft / West End / UK tour), Loveplay (Barbican), The Games Room (Soho Theatre) and Blavatsky’s Tower (Machine Room). For television, her work includes Harlots; and for film, The Dig, Jane Eyre and Tamara Drewe.
Indhu Rubasingham is Artistic Director of Kiln Theatre. Her work for the company includes Zadie Smith’s The Wife of Willesden, The Invisible Hand, Pass Over, When the Crows Visit, Wife, White Teeth, Holy Sh!t, Red Velvet (which transferred to New York and later to the Garrick Theatre as part of the Kenneth Branagh Season), Handbagged (winner of the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre – also West End, UK tour, Washington DC and New York), A Wolf in Snakeskin Shoes, Multitudes, The House That Will Not Stand, Paper Dolls, Women, Power and Politics, Stones in His Pockets, Detaining Justice, The Great Game: Afghanistan, Fabulation and Starstruck. Other theatre credits include The Father and the Assassin, The Great Wave, Ugly Lies the Bone, The Motherf**cker with the Hat (Evening Standard Award for Best Play), The Waiting Room (all National Theatre), The Ramayana (National Theatre/Birmingham Rep), Belong, Disconnect, Free Outgoing, Lift Off, Clubland, The Crutch and Sugar Mummies (Royal Court Theatre), Ruined (Almeida Theatre), Yellowman and Anna in the Tropics (Hampstead Theatre), Secret Rapture and The Misanthrope (Minerva, Chichester Festival Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Chichester Festival Theatre), Pure Gold (Soho Theatre), The No Boys Cricket Club and Party Girls (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Wuthering Heights (Birmingham REP), Heartbreak House (Watford Palace Theatre), Sugar Dollies and Shakuntala (Gate Theatre), A River Sutra (Three Mill Island Studios), Rhinoceros (UC Davis, California) and A Doll’s House (Young Vic).
KILN THEATRE Listings
Kiln Theatre
269 Kilburn High Road, London, UK, NW6 7JR
Box Office: 020 7328 1000
THE DARKEST PART OF THE NIGHT
Until 13 August 2022
Audio Described Performance 4 August 2022, 7.30pm
Relaxed Performance 6 August 2022, 2.30pm
Captioned Performance 10 August 2022, 7.30pm
HANDBAGGED
9 September – 22 October 2022
Press night: 15 September 2022, 7pm
Captioned Performance 29 September, 7.30pm
Post Show Q&A 18 October, 7.30pm
Audio Described Performance 20 October, 7.30pm
REASONS YOU SHOULD(N’T) LOVE ME
5 – 26 November
Captioned Performance: 17 November, 7.30pm
Audio Described Performance: 24 November, 7.30pm
Post Show Q&A: 24 November, 7.30pm
THE WIFE OF WILLESDEN
14 December 2022 – 28 January 2023
Media night: 20 December, 7pm
Post Show Q&A: 10 Jan 2023, 7.30pm & 27 Jan 2023, 7.30pm
Audio Described Performance: 12 Jan 2023, 7.30pm
Fundraising Performance: 19 Jan 2023, 7.30pm
Captioned Performance: 23 Jan 2023, 7.30pm
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