Triumph – Almeida Theatre, London

Writer: Caryl Churchill

Director: James Macdonald

Caryl Churchill’s new play, Triumph, is a gem. At just 15 minutes long, it’s a witty, whip-smart satire which neatly melds Imperial Rome with 21st-century politics. Central to Churchill’s imaginative conceit is that the script in large part is not her own, but the words mined from Roman biographer Suetonius’s Lives of the Twelve Caesars.

A podium stands to one side of the stage, a screen displaying a logo of a sort of off-kilter laurel wreath. To the other side is an unremarkable bedroom. But while there is a soundscape of city traffic, a row of Roman braziers burn. We’re in two worlds at once – not just public and private but ancient and modern.

In a manner with which we’re all too familiar from White House briefings, Iris (Kate O’Flynn) stands before us, a blonde, besuited Press Secretary.  But the news she delivers consists of breathless encomiums on the Emperor. We hear about his successful ventures – all, of course, triumphs. There will be further celebrations, more raising of triumphal arches and glittering statues. There’ll be spectacles – staged sea battles and gladiatorial combat. And best of all, Iris, her voice vibrant with delight, outlines the ever-more ingenious methods the Emperor has devised for torturing and killing his opponents.

This, of course, is where Suetonius comes in – all the absurdities come directly from his highly coloured accounts of Caesars from Caligula to Nero. And what fabulous entertainment they prove to be.  The distance in time allows us to laugh at the sheer scale of imperial cruelty. But we’re simultaneously shaken by the all-too-obvious parallels with he whose name so closely resembles ‘Triumph’.

When Iris is not enthusing about the mighty Emperor, she’s in bed with her reporter boyfriend Marcus (Matthew Beard), who’s happy to offer erotic distraction as she sits up with her laptop recording further briefings. It’s Marcus who gradually undermines her faith in the Emperor and his regime, and Iris’s crack-up seems inevitable. But there’s an unexpected twist in store.

Sharply directed by James Macdonald, Triumph has excellent leads in O’Flynn and Beard, with sound support from Sargon Yelda as sidekick Rufus.

 Runs until 23 October 2026