-(1).jpeg?width=1200&auto=webp&crop=3%3A2)
At 88, Caryl Churchill is arguably Britain’s greatest living playwright and it seems she may also be an agent of Transatlantic political change. Hours after the opening of her 20-minute satire, Triumph, about a blonde American press secretary realising she can no longer celebrate the indefensible, Katie Zacharia quit the White House. A further collection of “biting short plays” from Churchill will open Dominic Cooke’s tenure at the Almeida in January, it was revealed this week. Go on, Caryl, do Trump and Musk now.
Even if that announcement slightly diminished the cachet of Triumph, a new Churchill play remains an event. With its brief running time, its week-long run and its roots in Suetonius’s sensationalist biographies of Rome’s leaders in The Twelve Caesars, this slender work will have a self-selecting audience. Its multiple daily performances are already pretty much sold out so there’s little need for me to preach to the unconverted.
