Time remains ever-bendable to human will. Just this week, Americans have invented an entirely new unit of time: a Zacharia, which is roughly half a Scaramucci. The abbreviated terms of White House press secretaries seems to have inspired the latest play by the 88-year-old British legend Caryl Churchill, whose Triumph is now running as a free 20-minute aperitif ahead of the many productions at the Public Theater (with more traditional running times). It’s a timely little satire that’s getting a simultaneous premiere run at London’s Almeida Theatre.
Churchill presciently imagines a Katie Zacharia-like press secretary for the emperors of ancient Rome named Iris who spins her boss’s grandiose moves and atrocities to an unseen camera. Annaleigh Ashford, donning a wig of platinum tresses that fall below her shoulders for her televised appearances, delivers her reports with the studied perkiness of a perfectly coiffed Fox News anchor committed to providing “101% support for the emperor.” She offers hilariously offbeat line readings, popping certain words to undercut the horror of their actual meaning and delivering threats with a calm, maternal authority. The actress also reveals the personal toll of her job, how removing that battle helmet of blond hair doesn’t erase the consequences of her actions.
Iris’s reports are lifted almost directly from Seutonius’s 121 A.D. history The Lives of the 12 Caesars describing the efforts by Rome’s first emperors to maintain and exploit their power — but the modern parallels are crystal clear even before you register the styling of the show’s title on the poster, which bolds five of its letters: TRIUMPH. We hear about renovating Rome’s edifices from “brick to glorious marble,” how “crime is being stamped out,” “people can now be executed for any form of disrespect,” and that prisoners are shown mercy through “executions without torture.” Each bullet point is a reminder of how history has a way of rhyming, if not repeating verbatim.
Iris’s commitment to the imperial cause wavers after she begins hooking up on the sly with a reporter named Marcus (Joe Tapper), who explains precisely how much her spin-filled briefings depart from reality. Before long, he too becomes a victim of the leader’s single-minded efforts to squelch opposition. Iris’s tentative moves toward resistance, of injecting some harsh truths into her televised briefings, get a surprising reaction from the emperor and his dark-suited henchman (Christopher Ryan Grant). “No need to play down his ruthlessness,” he advises, underscoring how certain harsh revelations serve the leader and sow enough fear to cement his authoritarian control.
There’s nothing particularly subtle about Churchill’s play, of course, and the Public’s audience is already primed for an anti-MAGA message just ahead of the midterms. But director Saheem Ali, working with the the set and lighting of How Shakespeare Saved My Life that plays on the Shiva stage just afterward, has crafted a little gem of a show. Churchill is an absurdist who works best in miniature; last year, the Public staged a wonderful production of four of her mini-plays, Glass. Kill. What If If Only. Imp. With Triumph, she proves that theater still has the power to speak boldly to the current moment — even while evoking the wisdom of civilizations from centuries past. ★★★★☆
TRIUMPH
Public Theater, Off Broadway
Running time: 20 minutes with no intermission
Tickets are available for free (with a reservation) through November 2