For some, the name Lehman is synonymous with the financial crisis of 2008, and the prospect of over 180 minutes in the company of the Lehman family is unappealing.
Do not be deterred from this play. The Lehman Trilogy isn’t about subprime mortgages and quantitative easing, it’s a richly woven tale of family, of determination, and an insidious greed that traverses the 19th century, two world wars, and the birth of the 21st century.
A perfect lesson in the adage, “You have to know the past to understand the present”.
Michael Balogun, Hadley Fraser and Nigel Lindsay play the Lehman brothers – German Jewish immigrants who have travelled across an ocean to build a better life for themselves and their family in America.
Playing fathers, sons, grandsons, wives and lovers, this three-strong cast are magnetic, morphing from narrators to characters with the ease of expert craftsmen.
First dealing in cotton, then coffee, money, and eventually trading in things inaccessible to the human eye and mind, their journey from fabric merchants to global financiers is truly epic.
Before you know it, you’re fond of the Lehmans, all of them. It’s all so irresistible, the vibrantly intelligent dialogue, the heroic journey of failure and success, failure and success.
Sam Mendes’ direction is the work of a chess Grandmaster, and he moves his players across the board with perfect timing.
Pianist Yshani Perinpanayagam, situated below stage, provides the perfectly elegant soundtrack to Mendes’ seduction. Only when it’s too late do you realise, you’ve been duped. We’re all going to hell.
The Lehman Trilogy is a thought-provoking masterpiece for the modern age, confronting in word, music and action.
With so much history, the production is impressive for the fact that it never fails to feel contemporary, especially in the minimal surroundings of Es Devlin’s corporate set piece.
The past, and its sins, feels unnervingly close – maybe because they aren’t in the past.
The Lehman Trilogy will run until May 20 2023. A limited number of £25 front row seats are available to purchase for every performance.
Director: Sam Mendes
Original script (Italian): Stefano Massini
Adaptation: Ben Power
Original Music: Nick Powell
Set Designer: Es Devlin
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