Enron @ The Birmingham Rep
Lucy Prebble
One of my major, personal dissapointments of the last year was that I didn’t make it down to London to catch Enron, the much acclaimed dramatisaztion of the american financial scandal by dramatist of the moment Lucy Prebble. So, of course, I was filled with anticipation and delight when, flicking through my regularly posted Birmingham Rep brochure, I found Enron was not only going on tour but visiting my beloved hometown. I quickly booked myself a ticket and counted the days until I would finally see the theatrical experience everyone is talking about. Then, the nerves started to kick in. So hyped is Enron, that I felt I must be setting myself up for some sort of let down; it couldn’t possibly match up to the ridiculous expectations that broad sheets of all stripes had instilled in me. So happy am I, then, that I can report with glee that Lucy Prebble’s master stroke of a play did just that.
What Prebble does so well, other than share Sorkin’s knack for making issues of finance and politics actually entertaining aswell as informative, is build a true dramatic momentum. This, of course, you could say is the job of any playwright, surely? Yes, but many’s the time I’ve sat in a Theatre (or Cinema) during a play meant to be tackling the issues of our time and, whilst the observations have been acute and sometimes profound, found them to be didactic and boring. What makes this play so great is not simply its deep understanding of corparate greed but it’s use of the theatrical form to its full potential. This is a play presented as a song and dance show, with quick dialogue, physical comedy and audience asides combined, steeped in the vaudevillian tradition. Make no mistake, Enron couldn’t have taken place anywhere other than the Theatre. That been said, its fast pace and quick changing scenes no doubt take some influence from Lucy Prebble’s time spent in television and certainly add to the dramatic momentum I mentioned earlier. The cast are excellent too, Corey Johnson perfectly captures the growing arrogance of Jeffery Skilling, Paul Chahidi’s knack for physical comedy makes the slimy, intelligent, awkward, anti social CFO Andy Fastow a treat whenever he’s onstage and Sara Stewart, who plays Skilling’s rival and sometimes sex partner Claudia Roe, always delivers whenever I see her.
Of course, one can’t ignore how Prebble has managed to take a financial scandal that has baffled many a top economic analyst and break it down to surprisingly simple levels for her audience. No one will leave this Theatre without some understanding of what went on. What makes her critique of Capitalism so scathing is that this isn’t some left wing rant from the sidelines, no, Prebble observes precisely how human it all is and how intrinsically linked to human nature it’s more morally dubious practices are. She also examines, particularly through Skilling’s philosophical outlook, how powerful self delusion can be. Most importantly, in my opinion, and perhaps others would disagree, she isn’t all that judgmental in her observations. Enron is certainly a play that will remind you why the Theatre is still the greatest medium.
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