We have matinée tickets for Handbagged, at the Vaudeville. It's a transfer from The Tricycle, where it was sold out when we tried in November. A witty play imagining conversations, and the relationship, between Maggie Thatcher as prime minister and the queen, with whom she has weekly meetings. Two actors playing the queen and two Mrs Thatcher, enabling each character to have internal debates, reminiscences and asides on a minimalist stage. Two male actors play all the other parts - George Bush, Ronald Reagan (and Nancy!), Dennis Thatcher, Neil Kinnock, a butler, Michael Portillo, and more. Cleverly done, and with asides to the audience along the lines of I've a lot of parts to play but work is in short supply and you take the roles you can get. A real pleasure. And a bargain as well. To begin with we found £25 tickets on the Telegraph web site for £16. Then we arrive at the theatre to find that we've been upgraded to the stalls (and yes we do realise that's because it hasn't sold out). So excellent seats about ten rows back and in the centre.
Would like to say that the day concludes in the same vein, but it doesn't quite. We decide to picnic in, in front of the telly, rather than eat out, in the interests of which we go for Marks and Spencer's "two can dine for £10" deal. You get to choose a main dish - normally meat or fish - a side vegetable or salad, a dessert, and a bottle of wine for £10. The difficulty from the picnic point of view is that some of the choices are clearly designed to be eaten hot. No problem with the wine or some of the desserts, and the side can be a salad. Of the mains this leaves two chicken and leek pies, which would be good hot but should be fine cold and a rotisserie chicken, whose only problem seems to be that there will be too much of it - but then we needn't finish it. Well, that's its only problem until we get home and realise that it's uncooked, and of course uncookable. So we offer it to the kind couple who own the hotel (small, family run). And collect a couple of burgers which go fine with the salad, dessert and wine.