“The Lehman Trilogy,” which opens on Tuesday at Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany, is that rare work in which the writing is deeper than the synopsis indicates.
Starting in 1844 , one by one, three immigrant brothers arrive in United States from Bavaria. Heyman, who inadvertently had his name changed to Henry by a lazy port official was first. Emmanuel followed and then Mayer came over. Through hard work, innovation and the ability to forecast trends they became very wealthy. Their children continued their success and by the mid-half of the 20th century the family had built one of the most powerful investment firms in the world.
The third generation of inherited wealth was less successful. Blinded by the lust for greater profits, the stable firm starts to take more and more risk. Eventually, the family loses control of the company and before you know it it’s 2008.
On the surface it’s a Horatio Alger story gone bad. True. But it is more. Actually, this is a cautionary tale about how success can corrupt and greed can destroy. Indeed, “The Lehman Trilogy” is a play about money. It shows that money is power and the accumulation of money has the ability to do good, or to be self-serving. It’s a wonderful primer for many to acquaint themselves on how money can create money and how debt can keep one in endless poverty. It’s educational without being dry . Though there are political subtexts in the work, you have to look for them.
Written by Stefano Massini, the play consists of three one-hour acts and two intermissions. It sounds long, but at the two previous productions I attended, the time flew by. Because of the length of the play, The Rep is having the opening curtain at 7p.m. for all evening performances.
If one looks at the material with a searching eye, you can see in “The Lehman Trilogy” that the family evolved into a Bernie Madoff version of success. Their 20th century wealth was based on what is termed “paper profits.” It’s something that has no actual reality. The wealth they were creating was all an illusion. When reality did hit in 2008, disaster had to follow.
By using the Lehman family to show how corporate values can sow the seeds of disaster it’s a tutorial on how Capitalist-based economies can run amuck. This makes “The Lehman Trilogy” a tale for our times. Today, the country is being run by corporate capitalistic principles. If something doesn’t show a profit it has no worth. As the play clearly shows, no one is ever happy with a modest profit. The need for more always leads to risk taking. Risk taking can have catastrophic results.
It’s one thing for a corporation to exploit the less powerful, it’s another thing when government policy does the same. It’s sad to consider corporations being hard-hearted by laying off workers in a profitable company in the name of increased profit. For many, it's unimaginable that governments would use profit to determine what segments of society get to use the surplus created by all the citizens of the country.
In the play the immigrant brothers are initially shown as shrewd but community-minded. Their success when devising the concept of cotton brokers negotiating for all suppliers as a whole made them rich. However, because the individual farmer was often exploited when negotiating alone, they too profited by the Lehman’s strategy. It was a win-win situation with one exception. The play, true to our cancel culture mind set, neglects to mention all in the cotton industry were successful because of slave labor.
To be clear, “The Lehman Trilogy” is not a political rant. It’s an American story wonderfully told. It should equally appeal to the wealthy and the minimum wage worker. As all great theater should, it should have each side walking out with different opinions on every issue in the play.
“The Lehman Trilogy” opens at Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany Tuesday, March 11. It plays through April 6. Note that evening performances are at 7p.m. For tickets and complete schedule go the attherep.org.
Bob Goepfert is theater reviewer for the Troy Record.
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