National Theatre, Lyttelton
28th July, 2018, matinee
“He left with only an idea of America in his
mind.
He arrived with it there in front of him”
Italian playwright Stefano
Massini’s The Lehman Trilogy (2013)
has made it to the National Theatre, in a translation by Deputy Artistic Director
Ben Power and in a starry production, after previously being well received in
different productions in Paris and Milan. It’s a history – his-story – play,
chronicling Lehman Brothers, from an Alabama fabric store ran by three German
immigrant brothers, to the globally renowned (and now vilified) stock brokers.
But although this is directed by
Hollywood heavyweight Sam Mendes, The
Lehman Trilogy doesn’t have much cinematic quality. It doesn’t arouse the
boardroom sharks of J.C. Chandor’s Margin
Call (2011), nor does it glorify the lives of bankers as in Martin
Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street
(2013). It doesn’t really reach the heights of Caryl Churchill’s Serious Money (1987) at portraying the
thrill of the trading floor. And considering the whole play is basically
mansplaining, it falls short of the audacious bravura of Adam McKay and Charles
Randolph’s The Big Short (2015). It’s
more a play about immigrants’ tenacity to make something of their lives, the
family’s continued effort to make more money, and how the ceiling of ambition
rises with each new generation.
Es Devlin’s set and Luke Halls’
video design keep the production moving. The skyscraper office with floor to ceiling
windows spins to match the play’s pace; the minimalist offices become stores
and houses from state to state; grey cardboard storage boxes become shop
counters and stairs. But this playfulness is conservative, leaving me now
wondering what James Graham or Headlong would’ve done with the idea. Mendes firmly
keeps his eye on the story, and it is
a fascinating story, it’s more that Massini’s script occasionally feels rushed
and lacking its own definite sense of identity.
I am also unconvinced by the play’s
structure. It’s neatly satisfying that the Trilogy of the title refers to the
three founding Lehman brothers as well as its three parts. But these three
parts – Three Brothers, Fathers and Sons, The Immortal – don’t feel distinguishable enough to be considered
as making up a triptych. Ben Power has provided a sturdy translation but I’m
still a bit cynical. For example, the play is excellently underscored by
Candida Caldicot on the piano (music by Nick Powell). Just as Powell’s musical
phrases are made up occasional repetition, concordant notes and leitmotifs,
Powell continuously returns to lines in his script. Here is a smattering of
those which stand out:
The brain the
arm the potato
The ticking clock was deafening
The yellow and black sign and the slightly stiff door
handle
Henry is always right
I think it’s harsh but not
disingenuous of me to say that I think these merely give it the illusion of
structural strength, something to stop it completely being a rambling yarn of
160 years.
Although I don’t feel it was a
massively rewarding *shivers* piece
of theatre, it is enjoyable while it lasts, mainly because of the assured
direction and performances. Simon Russell Beale, Ben Miles and Adam Godley have
fun showboating their top acting skills. All three of them, as well as playing
the original Lehman brothers and their descendants, take on the roles of
supporting characters: crying children and would-be wives, southern plantation
owners and New York tycoons. Best of all is Godley; his rubbery face and
dynamic performance leaves a memorable impression, as he goes from the more
tentative mediator ‘potato’ brother Mayer to the more forward-thinking, disco-loving,
elderly final Lehman to be involved in the business. Elsewhere, I can’t imagine
what it’s like to be one of the supernumeraries who don’t appear until the play’s
dying moments, probably thinking of how quickly they can get to Waterloo as much
as they are about life after the 2008 financial crisis.
In the bigger picture, this may be
a play about family and the seed of the American Dream. When we visited Liberty
and Ellis Islands earlier this year, it was hard not to be impressed by the clustered
verticality of Manhattan. Like America promises so much to Henry Lehman when he
stands on the dock side, this play promised so much as well. *Insert neat phrase
in the semantic field of stocks and shares here*.
The Lehman
Trilogy plays at the National Theatre until 20th October.
No comments:
Post a Comment