Review: Handbagged, York Theatre Royal, until May 11. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk

THURSDAY night's Question Time from a toxic Nottingham was a new nadir for political debate. A boorish, bellicose Welsh actor, who had voiced a tree in the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, ranted unchecked; misogynist hectoring shot down the Green Party's Caroline Lucas and Tory MP Victoria Atkins; constant booing met anyone who dared challenge Brexiteers and "the betrayal of democracy". How have we come to this mean-spirited, myopic, miserable point?

All the sadder when contrasted with the wit, brio and intelligence of Mora Buffini's brilliant play from 2013, here presented in a timely revival by Wiltshire Creative, Oldham Coliseum and York Theatre Royal.

As with Question Time, it is built on conflict and people who talk but don't actually engage in a conversation, in this case a doubt act of those two female titans of the British 20th century, The Queen and the nation's first woman Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.

It is in fact a double double act because Buffini gives us a younger Liz (Carline Harker) and Mags (Alice Selwyn), from 11 years of the PM's weekly audiences with Her Majesty, and an older Q (Susan Penhaligon) and T (Sarah Crowden), observing their younger selves, each saying "I never said that", as if they are now unreliable witnesses to their earlier selves.

Then again, everything Buffini writes is but conjecture, but it has such panache, such conviction, such assiduous detail, such a grasp of its satirical subject like The Thick Of It , House Of Cards or Yes, Prime Minister, that the grains of truth would surely stretch to Filey Brigg.

There is a third double act: our hosts are Actor 1 (Jahvel Hall) and Actor 2 (Andy Secombe), who spar over who should play Labour Leader Neil "Kinnockio" Kinnock, while allocating themselves such support acts as Denis Thatcher, Prince Philip, Kenneth Kaunda, Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Geoffrey Howe, Michael Heseltine and Rupert Murdoch, as the night of the long knives draw nigh.

It would be too simple to say that everyone loves The Queen, especially in Penhaligon's caricature, while Maggie, both younger and older, is the humourless villain of the piece. Buffini's writing is far too sharp for that. What she does is find the humanity in such polar opposites. Margaret Thatcher is given every chance to put across her political philosophies, and we see her change, as her voice does, ironically adopting "we" when she becomes more "I" and isolated as she loses her allies.

The Queen's Christmas Day addresses are the cornerstone of her portrayal: one of compassion, a call for kindness, and in essence Socialist principles from the richest woman in the land. And so they talk but never bond, for all that time together, no common ground.

Superb performances, spacious staging by Dawn Allsopp and deft direction by Jo Newman combine with Buffini's skill in weaving her own mischievous political commentary into her modern-day comedy of manners to gloriously telling humorous effect.

Charles Hutchinson