Tabloid Caligula

Darren Murphy

Robert, an ageing businessman, believes he can make your dreams become flesh.

Part mentor, part historian, part psychopath, he strides about his storeroom like a low-rent Caesar, fi lling his young apprentice, Joe, with tales of Sixties glamour and ancient historical conquests.

As they await the arrival of Mary, Robert tries to teach Joe everything he knows… but he’s not telling him quite everything he knows. Now Mary wants proof. And she wants to fi ll Joe in on a few details.

“ALEXANDER THE GREAT WAS A BRILLIANT STRATEGIST & CALIGULA WAS A NONCE WITH A THING FOR HIS HORSE.” Tabloid Caligula

“Excellent” Time Out

“A cross between ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES and THE ITALIAN JOB” Theatreworld

“An evening you should witness even if you are run over on the way to the theatre. Get the ambulance to wait!” Indie London
Darren Murphy”I’m interested in those myths people use to sustain an image they have constructed of themselves until it is worn smooth through re-telling. There is nothing particularly grandiose behind this, it’s just in our nature to tell stories. For some, however, I think it becomes such a survival mechanism that to be confronted with a version of their history which challenges their own would result in a kind of psychic disintegration. Obviously Robert, with his delusional aspirations of becoming Alexander the Great is an extreme example of this, but the trait is not unrecognisable. We all tell stories, but what of those whose power resides in the telling and re-telling myths of the near past?”