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If you want someone to credit for the big laughs in the first half of this slippery production, look no further than Hilary Mantel. It was the Wolf Hall author who, in her 2014 short story, imagined a case of mistaken identity in a genteel Windsor home where a man presumed to be the plumber turned out to have a gun in his bag and his eye on the neighbouring hospital. Any minute now, the prime minister would emerge.

Exquisite in its economy, The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher – August 6th 1983 found humour in a grim thought experiment. It was in the false sense of confidence in the first-time shooter, the odd juxtaposition of cups of tea and deadly intent, and the way the host had little tolerance for the Tory leader either. On stage, it is as if a taciturn Pinter hardman and a cheery Ayckbourn divorcee have accidentally wound up in the same play. The culture clash is funny.

But if you want someone to credit for turning this delicate sketch into an arresting piece of theatre, Alexandra Wood is your playwright. She has the sensitivity to leave Mantel’s laugh lines just as they are, but also the imagination to dramatise the story’s politics.

Rooted in the era of IRA hunger strikers, the sinking of the Belgrano and horrendous levels of unemployment, the play is about power and powerlessness. In the face of a shared enemy, it might be too little to sit around debating, but what sort of direct action is too much?

Excitingly, just at the point in John Young’s production when you have written off Ceci Calf’s interior set, with its floral bedspread, stained wallpaper and working kettle, for being too literal, the whole thing is ripped apart and a relatively timid two-hander springs into theatrical life.

As full-size dolls in blue Thatcher dresses rain down from above, actors Robbie O’Neill and Anita Reynolds – perfectly mismatched – fall into a metaphorical netherworld of possible futures. Simisola Majekodunmi’s lighting turns stormy and Kieran Lucas’s sound design takes on a techno intensity, while the playwright carves out space to explore the ramifications of Mantel’s story. That she does this without upsetting its structure makes for a bold and provocative adaptation.

• At Everyman theatre, Liverpool, until 23 May