Theatre - The Apple Cart

[updated 17 March 2011]

Reviews

Daily Mail
"...In addition to the gripping topicality of it all, Sir Peter Hall's production draws first-class performances not only from Messrs Edwards and Laurenson (whose PM has a glinting desperation) but also, for instance, from Richard Dixon as a dark, faintly vindictive foreign secretary..."

The Guardian
"...Peter Hall's rare and excellent revival...Charles Edwards invests King Magnus with just the right mix of comic buoyancy and specific gravity..."

The Stage
"...Peter Hall has made a habit of including a Shaw offering in his company’s summer season at Bath, but never with such percipience as this articulate production that must surely be bound for the West End...Charles Edwards mixes charm and cunning in equal quantity as a charismatic King Magnus..."

This is Dorset
"...Peter Hall's production is beautifully staged, subverting expectations and hitting home the timelessly topical aspects of this sometimes very funny play...Charles Edwards is an irresistible king, a man who has dispensed with the effete reliance on protocol, and thus manages his ministers of state with charm and precision..."

This is Wiltshire
"...Best of all is Charles Edwards as King Magnus, charismatic, charming, clever, and more than a match in deviousness for his whole cabinet...directed by Peter Hall it has a directness and a lightness of touch..."

This is Bath
"...Highly amusing and intelligent, it's rather boring to relate that this is another piece of Peter Hall perfection, but it simply is."

Crackerjack
"...you couldn't wish for a more polished, intelligent production or a better cast..."

Financial Times
"...Charles Edwards is at once amiable and wily (he brought a similar combination to the West End’s four-handed adaptation of The 39 Steps) as King Magnus...Perhaps the highlight of the play is the verbal fencing between Edwards and Janie Dee as his mistress, a typical Shavian intellectual duel but invested by the actors with playfulness and affection..."

Telegraph
"...Hall's sharp and entertaining production...Charles Edwards brings dash, style, cunning and a hint of melancholy to the King...Highly recommended."

New York Times
"...Nimbly directed by Mr. Hall, this Apple Cart is a deft piece of prognostication, with its portraits of craven special-interest-ruled politicians and of England as a super money laundry for other nations..."

Pictures

Geraint Lewis/independent.co.uk
unknown/timesonline.co.uk, thisiswiltshire.co.uk
Tristram Kenton/dailymail.co.uk
Rex Features
Robbie Jack/Corbis