The Apple Cart

Background

Sir Barry Jackson, who had presented and directed the British premiere of Shaw's Back to Methuselah at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1923, grew disillusioned with the commercial theatre, particularly that of the West End, and conceived the idea of founding an out-of-town theatre festival at Malvern, starting in 1928. Shaw was impressed by Jackson's plan and promised that if the Malvern Festival was set up, he would write a new play for it. Having written nothing for the theatre since Saint Joan in 1923, Shaw worried that he might have exhausted his creative powers, but an idea for a new play came to him and, his biographer Michael Holroyd records, he "wrote it with extraordinary ease and swiftness ... In less than eight weeks he had a complete play".

Characters

• Pamphilius – The King's private secretary
• Sempronius – The King's private secretary
• Bill Boanerges – President of the Board of Trade
• King Magnus
• Orinthia – The King's mistress
• Alice – Princess Royal
• Joe Proteus – Prime Minister
• Pliny – Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Nicobar – Foreign Secretary
• Crassus – Colonial Secretary
• Balbus – Home Secretary
• Amanda – Postmistress General
• Lysistrata – Powermistress General
• Vanhattan – American ambassador
• Queen Jemima

Shaw based King Magnus largely on himself. He modelled the enigmatic and pivotal character Orinthia, the King's mistress, on Mrs Patrick Campbell, the actress who had created the role of Eliza Doolittle in Shaw's Pygmalion.

Productions

• In June 1929, just after the Warsaw premiere, Max Reinhardt staged the play in German translation at the Deutsches Theater, Berlin.
• The first production in the original English was given at the Malvern Festival, directed by H. K. Ayliff. The cast is given below.
• The Malvern production transferred to the West End at the Queen's Theatre in September 1929.
• In New York, the Theatre Guild presented the play at the Martin Beck Theatre in 1930: cast details in table below.
• The first London revival was in September 1935 at the Cambridge Theatre by the Macdona Players, with Esmé Percy as King Magnus, E. Bellendon-Clarke as Proteus, George Wray as Boanerges, Barbara Everest as Queen Jemima and Oriel Ross as Orinthia.
• In August 1946 a production was presented at the Arts Theatre, London starring Jack Hawkins as Magnus, Aubrey Dexter as Proteus, Jean Anderson as the Queen, Eileen Beldon as Lysistrata and Gwen Nelson as Amanda.
• The 1953 production at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket: details below.
• The second New York production was in 1957, at the [[Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre| Plymouth Theatre]], with Maurice Evans as King Magnus, Charles Carson as Proteus and Signe Hasso as Orinthia.
• A 1965 production for the Prospect Theatre Company, directed by Peter Dews starred Marius Goring as King Magnus and Barbara Murray as Orinthia. Also in the cast were Alan MacNaughtan, Clive Swift and Caroline Blakiston.
• A 1970 production at the Mermaid Theatre starred John Neville as Magnus, with Maurice Denham as Proteus and Carmen Munroe as Orinthia.
• At the Chichester Festival and subsequently the Phoenix Theatre, London, in 1977 Keith Michell played Magnus, with Penelope Keith as Orinthia, Nigel Stock as Proteus, Paul Hardwick as Boanerges, June Jago as Lysistrata, Jo Warne as Amanda, and Jeanette Sterke as the Queen.
• A 1986 production directed by Val May starring Peter O'Toole opened at the Theatre Royal, Bath on 11 February and transferred to the Theatre Royal Haymarket on 20 February. Cast details in the table below.
• The Peter Hall Company's 2009 revival featured Charles Edwards as Magnus, James Laurenson as Proteus, Janie Dee as Orinthia and Barry Stanton as Boanerges.

Reception

The play was enthusiastically received. St John Ervine wrote: Desmond MacCarthy quoted other reviewers: "Let me say this is one of the most brilliant plays Bernard Shaw has written", and "To-day was a great event in the history of the English theatre". MacCarthy wrote in 1929 that although the characters are caricatures they are recognisably true to life:

In MacCarthy's analysis greatness of mind is not necessarily imposing or magnetic, and in a quiet and unselfish way Magnus shows up the inadequacies of Proteus and his cabinet.

Adaptations

The play has been adapted for broadcasting, both on radio and on television. BBC radio transmitted a version in January 1947 with Ralph Truman as Magnus, Esmé Percy as Proteus and Margaret Rawlings as Orinthia. A version that omitted the Interlude between Magnus and Orinthia was broadcast in August 1952 with Peter Coke as the King and Ivan Samson as Proteus. A 1980 adaptation featured Peter Barkworth as Magnus, Nigel Stock as Proteus, Elizabeth Spriggs as Lysistrata, Dilys Laye as Amanda and Prunella Scales as Orinthia.

The first version of the play on British television was broadcast by the BBC in July 1957, with Jack Hawkins as Magnus, Willoughby Goddard as Proteus and Moira Lister as Orinthia, in a cast that also featured Hugh Sinclair, George Howe, William Mervyn, Angela Baddeley and Margaret Rawlings. In a BBC television version in 1975, Nigel Davenport played Magnus, Peter Barkworth Proteus, Bill Fraser Boanerges and Helen Mirren Orinthia.

References

1. Shaw, George Bernard. "The Apple Cart: A Political Extravaganza".
2. Holroyd, p. 568
3. Holroyd, p. 567
4. Peter Hall Company 2009 Programme - Shaw's ''The Apple Cart'' by Robert Warren.
5. [https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/the-apple-cart-11060#OpeningNightCast "The Apple Cart"], Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 12 April 2025
6. "The Apple Cart", ''The Yorkshire Post'', 27 September 1935, p. 5
7. "The Arts", ''The Stage'', 15 August 1946, p. 4
8. [https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/the-apple-cart-2570#OpeningNightCast "The Apple Cart"], Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 12 April 2025
9. "Prospect at Cambridge", ''The Stage'', 13 May 1995, p. 1
10. Marriott, R. B. "Exhilarating revival of The Apple Cart' at the Mermaid", ''The Stage'', 12 March 1970, p. 13
11. Blake, Douglas. "The Apple Cart at the Phoenix", ''The Stage'', 17 November 1987, p. 11
12. [https://www.whatsonstage.com/news/the-apple-cart-bath_16400/ "The Apple Cart"], ''What's On Stage'', 15 July 2009
13. "The Apple Cart", ''The Stage'', 22 August 1929, p. 21
14. "The Apple Cart", ''The Stage'', 23 April 1953, p. 10
15. Programme, Theatre Royal, Haymarket, 20 February 1986
16. ''Quoted'' in MacCarthy, p. 181
17. MacCarthy, p. 185
18. [https://web.archive.org/web/20200810065441/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/page/c637f2c824fe41ddb12f335932933a8c "The Apple Cart"] (i), BBC Genome. Retrieved 12 April 2025
19. [https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/page/3f84a8aa65104e66bf4087da585fbb06 "The Apple Cart"]{{dead link. (September 2025)
20. [https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/58085e66035a45df91aae3f3925c038d "The Apple Cart"]{{dead link. (September 2025)
21. [https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/page/f70b53f407fb41059b8f806f71b21b12 "The Apple Cart"]{{dead link. (September 2025)
22. [https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/ce4ccd4cef68455e8bac3c436f07a126 "The Apple Cart"]{{dead link. (September 2025)