Issue 26 | Retrospect Journal | Margins | Features
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Review: Through, From, and For the Margins: National Theatre Live’s The Lehman Trilogy By Jelena Sofronijevic
In three hours, three acts, and three generations of Lehmans, Stefano Massini’s American-Homeric epic jostles through 164 years of American capitalism – from 1844 to the moment of the financial crash of 2007-2008. First performed as an Italian-language radio play, Ben Powers’ deft English adaptation was directed by Sam Mendes for South Bank’s Royal National Theatre in 2018. The Lehman Trilogy is a socioeconomic historical narrative through, from, and for the socioeconomic margins. Family and financial histories intertwine, as the Lehmans are both a microcosm of, and fundamental logic within, the expansion of American capitalism. In the opening monologue, the solitary Henry Lehman (Simon Russell Beale), clutching a suitcase, recounts the boat journey from Bavaria to Ellis Island, New York. Beale skilfully captures the complex range of emotions concerning migration to the “free world,” and dreams to open a shop in Alabama – Lehman’s Fabrics and Suits. Joined by his brothers Mayer (Adam Godley), and Emanuel (Ben Miles), the trio transition between generations from the outsiders to the establishment, as the business mutates into Lehman Brothers
Holdings Inc. – all to the live vaudevillian jaunts of pianist Candida Caldicot. The obsession with financial margins – and aggressive, imperialistic strategies employed for their maximisation – burgeons with successive generations. Beale’s strategic Philip, and later Godley’s flamboyant Bobby internationalise the business. Humorous scenes thinly veil Philip’s neurotic desire for control. During a street performer’s trick, Philip’s unwavering eye follows the trump card exactly; his focus never distracts, he always wins. Every detail of his existence is planned in his journal – in his amusing search for the ideal wife, he awards candidates numerically-assessed criteria on a 0-100 scale. Of greatest import is Philip’s obsession with zeros – and adding them to offers, accounts, and cheques. Despite its theoretical numeric value, zeros here mean everything. Artistic dandy Bobby dances the twist through financial deregulation in the 1980s, to his death in the early twenty-first century, exploiting the benefits of his forbearers’ toils. If Godley’s warped physicality is haunting, so too is his character’s approach towards economic expansion – some-