Marie Cooper says goodbye to Margaret Thatcher

Marie Cooper: After Handbagged

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Letting go of Margaret Thatcher

I never thought that I would ever use the words ‘I am sad to be letting go of Margaret Thatcher’. Our run of Moira Buffini’s ‘Handbagged’ at Sewell Barn Theatre is complete. We are already history. Our wigs and costumes have been packed away and we have swept and painted the stage back to black.

“Defeat? I do not recognise the meaning of the word.”
Mrs Thatcher

I still can not believe that I managed to get all of my lines into my head in time.
I got the email asking if I could step in and take on ‘Mags’ on the afternoon of 3rd September, I was on stage for rehearsals that very evening and we started the show on 11th October.

Just five and a half weeks to rehearse in the evenings and get all my lines into my head. I still don’t know how I managed it. I definitely couldn’t have made it without the help of my fellow Thatcher  actor,  Mrs T, played by Alexandra Evans, who gave up hours of her time to run lines with me. She is an absolute star!

‘Where There is Doubt, May we Bring Faith’
Mrs Thatcher

There is still a little niggley (Un-Thatcher like) squirrel of doubt inside my head that keeps saying, if only I’d had more time, I could’ve, should’ve, would’ve… done it better. But I need to shoo that squirrel away and focus on the achievement. It was the longest I have ever been on stage. The most lines I have ever had to learn, in the shortest period of time. I have never played such a hugely iconic, historical, political figure.

Whilst politically it would have horrified me to be compared to her, after getting to know her a little over the past weeks, I was quite taken aback at the entrepreneurial and libertarian similarities I began to see that we shared.  It was good to walk in her heels for a short while and yet good to kick them off at the end.

“Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it’s a day you’ve had everything to do and you’ve done it.”
Mrs Thatcher

Reviews of Handbagged by Moira Buffini Performed at Sewell Barn

Below are some of the lovely reviews that people had to say about Handbagged after the show. I will pop the photos from the production onto my Handbagged page of my portfolio when the photographer has finished working his magic on them.

Handbagged Review
Handbagged Review 2

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