by Vanessa Huang
Finally, one for the finance bros.
The Lehman Trilogy is a sweeping history of the Lehman Brothers Inc., the bank that was a major player in the 2008 financial crisis, tracing its roots from the three titular brothers who arrived in America as Jewish immigrants up to the beginnings of its demise. As the narrative descends into tragedy, it’s as much a blueprint of modern capitalism as it is an indictment of the American dream. Enamoured as critics are with this Sam Mendes-directed, Ben Power-adapted play, however, the entire ordeal simply reeks of high-brow prestige and a desperation to impress its audience rather than entertain them.
The three lead actors – Hadley Fraser, Nigel Lindsay, and Michael Balogun – remain onstage for virtually the entirety of the play, not just playing the Lehman brothers, but also narrating the story and embodying every other character in this multigenerational epic. It’s a very wordy and very shouty piece of theatre, filled to the brim with rapidly moving prose, leaving scant breathing room across its three acts. The exceptionally skilled trio rely on changes in accents and mannerisms to indicate when they’re providing exposition or when they’re jumping through the host of characters they’ve been designated. But as the play goes on and the actors are further into this marathon of a performance, these become more rushed and less distinguishable, with a repetitiveness that ultimately feels grating.
The Lehman Trilogy starts strong with the original three brothers – its first act taken alone would be a riveting theatrical masterwork – but then quickly loses its way, culminating in an ending that feels at once overwrought and underdone, devoid of any pathos that could rescue it.
