Caryl Churchill's new 20-minute satire, Triumph, opened at the Almeida Theatre hours before Katie Zacharia quit the White House, adding eerie timing to a play about a blonde American press secretary who realises she can no longer celebrate the indefensible. At 88, Churchill is arguably Britain's greatest living playwright, and the production, directed by James Macdonald, stars Kate O'Flynn, fresh from her Emmy win for Widow's Bay.
The play, which runs for a week and draws on Suetonius's The Twelve Caesars, features O'Flynn as Iris, a press secretary who kisses a man named Marcus (Matthew Beard). Their instant attraction is not true love but recognition delayed by Iris not wearing her long, yellow wig. Marcus is a distant reporter in the press pack, and the stage features a lectern, a bed, and a TV, all lit by burning firepits.
A miniature with a crystalline idea
Like Churchill's recent works, Triumph is a bright miniature with a straightforward message, lacking the metaphysical hijinks and character depth of her earlier plays. The passages describing the emperor's attitudes and acts apparently come directly from Suetonius, drawing parallels between the orange president and Nero, Caligula, or Claudius.
Iris reports examples of imperial vanity and brutality while reassuring us she supports the emperor "101 per cent!". When Marcus tells her that her boss has people sawn in half, virgins raped, and makes people fight to the death, her cheerleading starts to ebb. The reviewer notes it may be legally prudent to state that Donald Trump has done none of these things.
Classical roots and a chilling line
Iris, in myth, was the servant and messenger of the gods, while Marcus may be named after Marcus Aurelius or Cicero. A sinister, Stephen Miller-style factotum named Rufus, played by Sargon Yelda, seems to have no significance. The events Iris reels off don't directly correlate to Trump but sound like what he might do if in charge of the late Roman Republic and early Empire.
The most chilling line is the emperor murmuring to his wife "or any other woman": "This beautiful neck will be cut whenever I please." Again, the reviewer categorically states he is not suggesting any American president has ever done this. O'Flynn is excellent, her bright-eyed zeal swiftly hollowed out, and Iris's fate may be worse than death, but Churchill's slim work reminds us that Rome eventually fell.
Triumph runs to 23 Oct at the Almeida. Further "biting short plays" from Churchill will open Dominic Cooke's tenure at the Almeida in January.
