In Caryll Churchill’s new 20-minute play, Annaleigh Ashford portrays Iris the press secretary to the emperor, boasting during a press conference of his having turned this city “from brick to glorious marble.” This would make us think of Trump even if the play’s poster did not egg us on to conjure him (not-at-all-subliminally.) But what’s brilliant about “Triumph” is that Iris’s announcement is taken directly from “The Lives of the Twelve Caesars,” written some two thousand years ago by the historian Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus.
Indeed, every action we hear about that is taken by the emperor or on his behalf comes directly from Suetonius. We are informed of this on a placard before the start of the play, which is placed on a stage borrowed during the daytime from the production of “How Shakespeare Saved My Life.”
A so-called pop up performance offered for free at the Public through October 18. “Triumph” is already completely booked. My hope is that it’s extended. Many theatergoers of course would welcome any new play by Churchill, widely considered the greatest living playwright of the English language, the prolific author of such inventive works as “Cloud Nine” and “Love and Information.” It is something close to astonishing that she is still writing plays at the age of 88. Yes, they tend to be short and abstruse (such as Glass Kill What If If Only Imp , her quartet of plays presented at the Public last year) So were Samuel Beciett’s, and even he stopped writing plays completely at age 76. What’s most impressive about “Triumph” is how clear-eyed it is.
“Triumph” begins with Iris making out with Marcus (portrayed by Joe Tapper, Ashford’s real-life husband) in what we learn is a first amorous encounter. He did not realize she is the press secretary; she used a fake name. She doesn’t realize he is one of the journalists who attend her press conferences. He didn’t recognize her because when she is on the podium, Iris dons a platinum blonde wig (a sly allusion to Trump’s obvious color preference in coiffures for the women in his employ.) Iris tells Marcus she doesn’t want to date a journalist. “You may be one of those people who asks questions we’d rather not allow.”
“But you do allow.”
“For now,” she says. But they continue to see each other, which provides something of a plot, featuring a third cast member, Christopher Ryan Grant as Rufus, who may be the emperor’s chief of staff, or chief henchman. This adds to the complex and harrowing picture of a self-aggrandizing and brutal leader guided only by his whims and rages.
Several of Iris’s announcements at her press briefings could have been uttered by Kayleigh or Karoline or (now) Katie – “crime is being stamped out”. (this comes from Suetonius’ biography of Augustus)… .“a golden throne [is] being created for the emperor and his statue.” (Julius Caesar) … “He is bulldozing the land where he wants for himself.” (Nero. To be clear: I looked up the specific sources; Churchill doesn’t cite them in the play.)
But even some of the harshest atrocities suggest Trump’s rhetoric if not (yet) his actions: “Following an attempt on the head of the statue of the emperor, people can now be executed for any form of disrespect.”… “senators and knights are to be executed without trial once anything has been alleged against them.”
“At this morning’s briefing, the emperor proclaims, ‘Let them hate me so long as they fear me, and I can treat anyone as I like.’…. I’ll take questions.”
Triumph
Public Theater through October 18
Running time: Twenty minutes, no intermission
Tickets: Free (but they are now listed as unavailable.)
Written by Caryl Churchill
Directed by Saheem Ali
Cast: Annaleigh Ashford as Iris, Christopher Ryan Grant as Rufus, Joe Tapper as Marcus
