The Apple Cart

It is some time in the future, and the King of England is beset by his ministers, who want him to stop expressing political opinions; around him circle his mistress, his Queen, his secretaries, and the American ambassador. What ensues is a battle of wits over who will run the country: will it be the King, the Prime Minister, or the powerful corporation Breakages, Limited?

The Apple Cart presents a view of the future that is at times prescient, extrapolating from economic trends towards labor offshoring and the privatization of public services. In the preface, Shaw expands upon some of the play’s themes, discussing the nature of democracy and the difficulties in trying to get a population to govern itself responsibly. He compares the undemocratic nature of royalty to the undemocratic natures of corporate control, or government by unelected civil service.

Shaw wrote The Apple Cart in under two months in 1928 for the Malvern Theater Festival, but it first premiered in Polish in Warsaw, where it was a critical and popular success. It moved to the West End and ran on Broadway, and has seen numerous revivals in the years since, as well as translations and adaptations for radio and television.