Susie Blake to Lead HANDBAGGED UK Tour

Susie Blake will play 'The Queen' in the Tricycle Theatre's Olivier award-winning production of Moira Buffini's West End hit comedy, Handbagged, which embarks on a major 13-week national tour this autumn from 9 September to 5 December 2015.

Directed by Indhu Rubasingham, Susie Blake (Q) will lead a cast of six, including Kate Fahy (T), Emma Handy (Liz), Asif Khan (Actor 1), Sanchia McCormack (Mags) and Richard Teverson (Actor 2).

Handbagged first premiered at the Tricycle Theatre in 2013 where it enjoyed a sell-out 7-week run, winning the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre (2014) and nominations for Best New Comedy and Best Ensemble Performance at the WhatsOnStage Awards (2014). The production transferred to the West End on 9 April 2014 where it ran for a strictly limited 17-week season and received an Olivier Award nomination for 'Best New Comedy' 2015.

Handbagged opens the clasp on the relationship between two giants of the 20th Century. The monarch - Liz. Her most powerful subject - Maggie. Two enduring icons born in the same year. One destined to rule, the other elected to lead. But when the stiff upper lip softened and the gloves came off, which one had the upper hand? Moira Buffini's celebrated new comedy speculates on that most provocative of questions: What did the world's most powerful women really talk about behind closed palace doors?

Susie Blake plays 'Q'. Her many West End theatre credits include: When We Are Married (Garrick Theatre), Grumpy Old Women Live 2: Chin Up Britain (Novello Theatre and on tour), Madame Morrible in Wicked (Apollo Victoria), Noises Off (National Theatre, Piccadilly Theatre and UK tour); The Shakespeare Revue for the RSC (Barbican, Vaudeville Theatre and UK tour); The Merry Wives Of Windsor and A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park London). Her best known television credits include: Mrs Brown's Boys, Beverley Unwin in Coronation Street, Parents, Singles, Born and Bred, Russ Abbott's Madhouse and The Victoria Wood Show.

Kate Fahy plays 'T'. Her theatre credits include: After Electra (Tricycle Theatre); The Goat (Almeida/Apollo Theatres); Grace, Goucho (Hampstead Theatre); Old Flames (Arts Theatre); Othello (Young Vic); Seduced (Royal Court); and two years at the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. Recent television credits include: The Marriage of Reason and Squalor, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher and film credits include: Archipelago, The Living and the Dead - for which she received best actress and best supporting actress awards.

Emma Handy plays 'Liz'. Her theatre credits include: Miss Julie (Chichester Festival), Thursday (Adelaide International Festival), The Boy Who Fell Into a Book (Soho Theatre, London Olympics 2012), Flare Path (Haymarket Theatre), Edward Gant's Amazing Feats of Loneliness (Headlong), Vincent in Brixton (National Theatre, Wyndham's Theatre, Playhouse West End), 50 Revolutions (Trafalgar Studios), The Merchant of Venice, Twelth Night, Bad Weather (Royal Shakespeare Company), The Wood Demon (Playhouse, West End). Television and film includes: Wire in the Blood Series 2-7 and Velvet Goldmine.

Asif Khan plays 'Actor 1'. His theatre credits include: Love, Bombs & Apples, Kabaddi, Kabdaddi, Kabaddi (Arcola); Multitudes (Tricycle); The Nutcracker, The Snow Queen (Unicorn); Queen of the Nile (Hull Truck); Snookered (Bush); Twelfth Night (National Theatre); Mixed Up North (Out of Joint). Television credits include: The Dumping Ground; Doctors; Dark Matters; Spooks; The Liquid Bomb Plot; Casualty and Going Postal.

Sanchia McCormack plays 'Mags'. Her theatre credits include: The Broken Heart, Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare's Globe); Minotaur (Theatre Clwyd/Polka); One Night in November (Belgrade Theatre); Butterfly Lion (Curve/Derby Playhouse); The Caravan (Royal Court, Tour & Roundhouse). Television includes: The Tunnell; Doctors; Broadchurch; EastEnders; Big Bad World; Coronation Street; Law and Order.

Richard Teverson plays 'Actor 2'. Theatre credits include: The Winslow Boy (Old Vic), The Doctors Dilemma (National Theatre), Cause Célèbre (Old Vic), After The Dance (National Theatre), The 39 Steps (Criterion Theatre), When Harry Met Sally (Theatre Royal Haymarket), A Woman of No Importance (Theatre Royal Haymarket), The Lion King (Lyceum Theatre). Television credits include: Downton Abbey, Coalition, Jamaica Inn, The Bletchley Circle, Spies of Warsaw, Dancing On The Edge, Upstairs Downstairs, The Roman Mysteries, Poirot-Five Little Pigs. Film credits include: Brideshead Revisited and Workhorse.

Moira Buffini's plays include Wonder.land, a musical with Damon Albarn, for the Manchester International Festival and National Theatre, Women, Power And Politics for the Tricycle Theatre, Welcome To Thebes and Dinner for the National Theatre, Dying For It (adapted from Nicolai Erdman's The Suicide) and Marianne Dreams (adapted from Catherine Storr's book) for the Almeida Theatre, A Vampire Story for NT Connections, Loveplay for the RSC, Silence for Birmingham Rep (Susan Smith Blackburn Prize), Gabriel for Soho Theatre (LWT Plays On Stage Award and the Meyer Whitworth Award), Blavatsky's Tower for the Machine Room, and Jordan with Anna Reynolds for the Gate (Writers Guild Award for Best Fringe Play). Her screenplays include Tamara Drewe directed by Stephen Frears, Jane Eyre directed by Cary Fukanaga, and Byzantium directed by Neil Jordan. She recently directed her first short film, Father.

Indhu Rubasingham, Artistic Director of the Tricycle Theatre, directs. For the company, her work includes Multitudes, The House That Will Not Stand, Red Velvet (Tricycle/ St Ann's Warehouse New York, Evening Standard Award and Critics' Circle Award), Paper Dolls, Women, Power And Politics, Stones In His Pockets, Detaining Justice, The Great Game: Afghanistan, Fabulation, and Starstruck. Her other theatre work includes The Motherf**ker with the Hat at the National Theatre, Belong, Disconnect, Free Outgoing, Lift Off, Clubland, The Crutch, Sugar Mummies (Royal Court), Ruined (Almeida Theatre), Yellowman, Anna In The Tropics (Hampstead Theatre), The Waiting Room (National Theatre), The Ramayana (National Theatre/ Birmingham Rep), and Secret Rapture, The Misanthrope, Romeo and Juliet (Chichester Festival Theatre). In 2012 Rubasingham was awarded the Arts & Culture Award at the Asian Women of Achievement Awards for 'astounding achievements in theatre'. She also received the Carlton Multi-Cultural Achievement Award for Performing Arts and in 2010 she jointly received the Liberty Human Rights Arts Award for The Great Game: Afghanistan. She was previously Associate Director of the Gate Theatre, Birmingham Rep and the Young Vic.

Designs are by Richard Kent, with lighting design by Oliver Fenwick, and sound design by Carolyn Downing. The production is presented by Eleanor Lloyd Productions, Tricycle London Productions and the Touring Partnership.

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