Play of the Month

The Apple Cart (1x71)

Air date: Jan 19, 1975

In Bernard Shaw's play, set 40 years into the future, the king must match wits with an unruly mistress and a cabinet seeking to transform the nation into a constitutional monarchy. Over the course of two acts and interlude he navigates a series of political challenges and verbally spars with his mistress Orinthia played by Helen Mirren. Mirren's Orinthia is pampered, devastatingly beautiful, and every bit the intellectual match of her royal lover. Even though she doesn't appear until after the first act, Mirren more than makes up for her early absence with a drawing room scene that can be considered the highlight of the play