This G. B. Shaw play comes as an extra on the Maggie Smith MILLIONAIRESS DVD (putting the horse before the CART?), reversing received critical opinion on these late works. The reasoning soon becomes clear as this is an also-ran production that only fitfully brings out the issues & compromises variously embedded in governance, monarchy & democracy that Shaw touches on. Nigel Davenport is fine as the King who must sign off on making himself an irrelevant figurehead in a constitutional monarchy, and it's a kick to see young Helen Mirren as his mistress, yet they are both acted off the screen when Prunella Scales makes her belated appearance as the Queen in the final act. Her magnetism unbalances both the structure & the argument. The play has been faintly modernized (helicopters, minimalist interior design) which makes it all seem less rather than more topical, while the direction feels catch-as-catch-can, but Shaw's imagination in the last act is just too strong to resist with both America & the King turning tables and confounding all expectations.
3 Reviews
More Grand English Acting of a Kind No Longer to be Encountered
joe-pearce-126 July 2018
It may not be one of Shaw's greatest plays, and the story may require more knowledge of English politics, protocols and traditions than the average American can muster, but as with most Shaw plays, it gives grand opportunities for its players to strut their stuff, so to speak. The only cast member who was, or became, a truly top flight star is Helen Mirren, but that is not to say that there is any member of that cast who doesn't rise to, or possibly even exceed, her level of excellence. Prunella Scales is wonderful as the Queen, but not more wonderful that Beryl Reid and (especially) Joyce Grant as King Magnus's two female cabinet ministers. Mirren is delightful, but somewhat unbelievable, but only because the role of the King's mistress is totally unbelievable to begin with. Peter Barkworth (who, in the Trump Era, could definitely play Lindsey Graham) is really quite dynamic as the wiliest of prime ministers, and Bill Fraser, in the best thing I have ever seen from him, is almost too perfect as Boanerges, the template for so many of Shaw's up-by-the-bootstraps Socialist-Everyman characters. The star role, though, remains that of King Magnus, and Nigel Davenport plays him just perfectly, even though I often get the impression that he is letting acting technique take over for any true feeling about the words he is uttering. But for a delightful wallow in the field of English Upper Class Acting, this TV version of THE APPLE CART is hard to beat. I would also call attention to director Cedric Messina's decision to film Magnus's great speech to the assembled ministers near the end of the first act as one long, long tracking shot. It starts with a full frontal view of the King, follows him, sometimes closely and other times at a distance, as he very slowly walks about the room behind the ministers to his left, stops in the middle for some very nice close-up work, proceeds to slowly walk behind the ministers to his right all the way back to his 'throne', where he still speaks for a bit, with the camera ending up behind him and taking in all of the ministers in rapt attention to his every word, and ALL of this on one immensely long camera shot that might have made Hitchcock green with envy. it must run ten minutes, and one has to wonder if Davenport was able to do it all in one take, or if it had to be done over and over. Anyway, despite the play's occasional dead spots (I thought the entire long scene between the King and his mistress could have been cut out, but then we wouldn't have seen the quite young and lovely Mirren) and somewhat more occasional indecipherability, this is well worth watching. The acting alone rates it an 8.
A course in comparative government will help
bkoganbing17 November 2017
George Bernard Shaw was to the English language plays what Irving Berlin was to English language songs, good and prolific. When you're as prolific as both these guys were chances there will be a play or a song that won't be quite up to snuff. The Apple Cart goes most definitely in the category of the lesser work of George Bernard Shaw.
It certainly doesn't get much play in the USA and I think that one has to at the very least live in the United Kingdom to understand all the governmental references and just how the royal family fits into the structure of British politics. To the average American a lot of this will go right over their heads.
The Apple Cart was written in the late 20s and in one sense I think Shaw was a prophet. The King as played by Nigel Davenport was most likely based on Edward VII and also on the future Edward VIII. Already the current Prince of Wales then was giving cause for concern by his not sticking to the role laid down for him as British tradition evolved. Davenport's King Magnus certainly has the libido that the Edward VII had as witness by lovely young mistress Helen Mirren in her salad days and a wife a whole lot like Queen Alexandra. Acting honors go to Prunella Scales who plays the queen who like being queen with all the royal prerogatives.
You'll see some fine acting in The Applecart, but you can't truly enjoy a play that you have to have studied comparative government.
It certainly doesn't get much play in the USA and I think that one has to at the very least live in the United Kingdom to understand all the governmental references and just how the royal family fits into the structure of British politics. To the average American a lot of this will go right over their heads.
The Apple Cart was written in the late 20s and in one sense I think Shaw was a prophet. The King as played by Nigel Davenport was most likely based on Edward VII and also on the future Edward VIII. Already the current Prince of Wales then was giving cause for concern by his not sticking to the role laid down for him as British tradition evolved. Davenport's King Magnus certainly has the libido that the Edward VII had as witness by lovely young mistress Helen Mirren in her salad days and a wife a whole lot like Queen Alexandra. Acting honors go to Prunella Scales who plays the queen who like being queen with all the royal prerogatives.
You'll see some fine acting in The Applecart, but you can't truly enjoy a play that you have to have studied comparative government.
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