Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Frightful political theater leading up to the midterm elections: Caryl Churchill’s TRIUMPH and Anne Washburn’s ANON

• By drediman
• October 21, 2026
• No Comments

In these few weeks leading up to the midterm elections, I’d like to highlight some frightful political theater to get your blood pumping. ‘Tis Halloween season, after all. Here are my thoughts on two new plays that hold up the proverbial mirror to their audiences. They may not like what they see.

TRIUMPH
The Public Theater
Through November 3

British playwright Caryl Churchill is one theater-maker unafraid of brevity and minimalism. Those qualities are fully at play in her latest creation Triumph (RECOMMENDED) at The Public Theater, which, in a fascinating coup, is running simultaneously at London’s Almeida Theatre in a completely different production. One of theater’s most keenly observant social critic, Churchill’s worldviews are conveyed in incisive, often explosively theatrical settings (e.g., Far Away, Cloud 9, Top Girls, A Number, Escaped Alone). In Triumph, the British playwright looks to the past, comparing current fascist adjacent regimes (Trump? Putin?) to the reigns of some of Rome’s most volatile, decadent, and narcissistic emperors (e.g., Caligula). Vaguely set in Ancient Rome, the work centers one of the emperor’s chirf press secretaries, whose apologist stance takes a psychological toll vis-à-vis her romantic fling with a journalist. In Saheem Ali’s deceptively simple staging (the Almeida’s version is directed by longtine Churchill interpreter James Macdonald), the text takes the spotlight, starkly linking state brutality with the media with compressed clarity. Indeed, at only 17 crystallized minutes, the play’s incisive economy can’t help but be striking, painting a frank, emphatic portrait of our dire times without frilly detailing. The plain extremities of the facts speak for themselves. As the press secretary, the immensely likable Tony-winner Annaleigh Ashford is ideally cast in a morally ambiguous role. Donning a blond wig in front of the cameras, she’s at once a willing pawn and helpless spectator to the absurdities — from innocuous to atrocious — transpiring around her (to be sure, the analogy to current American politics is palpable). But read between the lines, and you’ll see a woman whose willingness to play the game slowly chips away at her humanity. Ashford is joined by Joe Tapper, steady as the journalist lover, as well as Christopher Ryan Grant, who gives an insidious performance as the emperor’s ruthless sentry. Note that tickets to Triumph are generously being made available free of charge, if you can snag them.

ANON
MCC Theater
Through November 1

This fall at Off-Broadway’s MCC Theater in Hell’s Kitchen, New York theatergoers have the opportunity to get spooked by Anne Washburn’s latest play Anon (RECOMMENDED). Known for works like her breakout play Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play and last year’s The Burning Cauldron of Fiery Fire, Anon is perhaps one Washburn’s most accessible and least speculative creations to date. Indeed, It’s as if the dread the playwright once felt for the future of human civilization in her previous works has been replaced by simply depicting the horrors of the present, especially in this lead-up to the midterms. Set in a San Antonio suburb, the play paints a portrait of a right-leaning Republican family and their gay neighbors. More specifically, the work hones in on how Jeanie, the middle-aged matriarch of the family, and her increasingly extreme conspiracy theory TikTok posts — the play’s title is an abbreviation of QAnon — destabilize her household and threaten the lives of the gay men who live across the street. Throughout, Washburn skillfully balances satire with psychological thriller, inducing laughs and gasps from the audience in equal measure. The play also artfully draws from King Lear, bringing to light unexpectedly insightful parallels between Shakespearean soliloquies and social media posts. As Jeanie descends further into her knotted delusion, her rants take on the grandeur and terror of some Lear’s most harrowing passages. Across the board, the performances are expertly rendered, never pushing the satire aspect of the text too hard. In the central role of Jeanie, the terrific Crystal Finn plays scary/crazy with a captivating conviction that nearly capsizes the show (but not quite). As tightly staged by veteran director Anne Kauffman, the multi-media production unfolds with simmering but inevitable tension.