Moira Buffini’s Handbagged national tour announced

Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch is launching a major new UK tour of Moira Buffini’s award-winning comedy Handbagged.

The tour is part of the Theatre Nation Partnerships (TNP) initiative, organised by the National Theatre.

Moira Buffini’s acclaimed comedy unlocks the palace door, imagining the untold conversations of two of history’s most powerful women, Margaret Thatcher and Queen Elizabeth II.

Handbagged will tour the UK starting at the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch in February 2025, and then touring to Wolverhampton, Doncaster, Peterborough, Salford, Leicester, Wakefield, Blackpool, Bury St Edmunds, Coventry, Guildford, Oxford

Alex Thorpe, Co-Creative Director of Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch and Director of Handbagged, said in a statement: “We are delighted to be working with our brilliant TNP partners and the National Theatre, to share this outstanding play across the country. At a time when female leadership is at the forefront of western global politics, it felt a perfect time to re-examine the titanic personal and political struggle of the two most powerful women of the modern era, in a defining moment in our country’s history. This tour marks the largest collaboration across the country in the three years of TNP and we can’t wait to share this story with the nation”.

Kate Varah, Executive Director of the National Theatre said: “Theatre Nation Partnerships is our national network with local impacts. By working in partnership with theatres across the country, we are collaborating at scale to create more opportunities for people to engage with theatre and inspire creativity across the nation, reaching over 500,000 people across three years. We’re so excited for audiences from across England to have the opportunity to enjoy the brilliant play that is Handbagged and are delighted to have Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch at the helm once again to share this story with audiences far and wide.”

Theatre Nation Partnerships is a network of arts organisations that aims to strengthen their relationships with local audiences, schools, and communities. Convened by the National Theatre, the network is made up of theatres and creative organisations in 14 areas of England.