Written by Sylvain Chan
Photography by Miya Lim
The LSESU Drama Society began the year with an indescribably phenomenal production of Enron, which ran from 17 to 21 November 2025. Directed by Amanda Suliawan, the play is a sardonic dramatisation that centres on the titular company’s CEO Jeffery Skilling (portrayed by Shayan Mukherjee) and his role in the corporate fraud scandal that plagued the American financial market in 2001.
The sold-out success of the Drama Society’s Enron can be attributed not only to the play’s resonance with the wider ‘fin-bro’ demographic at LSE, but more critically to the clever production and the actors’ enthralling performances.
Listen, Skilling is not a good guy — and that’s an immense understatement. Arrogant and reckless, we watch his ambition corrupt him and blindside those around him. But Mukherjee imbues his interpretation of the character with a certain feckless yet charismatic determination that makes Skilling compelling at his debauched peaks.
Mukherjee demonstrates an intense duality through his command of the stage with the ‘untouchable’ higher-ups like Enron’s founder Ken Lay (Frank Qi), while simultaneously rough-and-toughing in the round with CFO Andy Fastow (Zoë Legge) and the traders.
As the audience is seated mere inches from the actors, looking back and forth between these two portions of the set, akin to a metronome ramping up in speed, we are drawn into the adrenaline of the plot. I did not think much of the no-show reserved chair beside me in the front row until the performers sprang from the seat, drawing us into the company’s corrupt machinations.
High praises must be sung for Qi’s deep Southern accent for Lay, which dresses his willful ignorance in an attractive, vintage veneer. Qi’s interpretation is masterfully cryptic — a slow but perhaps calculating gait; a ‘see no evil’ attitude that comes off as air-headed.
Lay’s self-assured aura, despite the play’s tumultuous happenings, is a welcome juxtaposition to Legge’s Icarian performance of Fastow, where his slimy, insatiable businessman persona crumbles at the climax, having been built on the insecure foundations of a quirky, kind of socially inept whiz kid.
Isabella Parry’s Claudia Roe* is captivating as well. Her confrontational attitude (though one that is extrospective, lending herself a strong narrative foil to Skilling) against the Enron ‘boys club’ is brought to life with clarity and confidence.
*If you’d like to go down an internet rabbit hole as I did while watching: unlike the rest of the cast, Roe is a fictional character created by Enron’s playwright Lucy Prebble, though interestingly, she may be inspired by former Enron employee Rebecca Mark.
The supporting cast of traders and consultants prop up the play’s strong momentum. Brimming with feverish energy, the comedic relief from their exaggerated macho balances the play’s heavier beats. A highlight was the physical acting of the raptors, who were contorting ferally up and down the round. Watching on closing night also meant getting the privilege of seeing the actors ‘coked-out’ on improv, kissing passionately under the blaring lights as the employees go on a trading spree.
A perhaps underrated character was Skilling’s daughter. First introduced by descending from the venue’s stairs unexpectedly like a ghost, Arianna Saiful delivers her simple dialogue in a hauntingly sweet tone. Both attributes imbue an eeriness to all her scenes with Skilling, as if his memory reduces her to a childlike figure to justify his ambitions in a warped desire to cast himself as the family breadwinner.
I also have to give the production’s stellar marketing their flowers, from the promotional video’s unnerving feeling of urban solitude to their Instagram feed’s parody on the sanitised aesthetics of corporate graphic design.
As a fierce Hamlet enthusiast (I’m not normal about it), I will be eagerly looking forward to the LSESU Drama Society’s adaptation in the coming weeks, as I am certain it will be in safe hands.
