'Zenobia' pits a tribal monarch against the mighty republic of Rome. A middle-eastern state takes on the global superpower in a battle for control of trade and commodities. On a more personal scale, it is a play about ambition and accommodation, about principles and their dismemberment, about survival. History, here, is something you have got to get through. 'Zenobia' was first performed at the Young Vic, London, in August 1995, in a co-production with the Royal Shakespeare Company.