Ed Gillett

Saw this yesterday, thought it was a superb production with exceptional performances and stage design, in service of a script that repeatedly pulls its punches. There’s no real explanation of how the aggressive trading and profit-seeking established by different generations of Lehmans ultimately led to the 2008 crash (the last four decades of Lehman Brothers’ existence are crammed into the final five minutes of the play’s three hour run-time), the original Lehmans’ ownership of slaves and indeed the question of slavery itself are entirely glossed over, and the only people deemed worthy of attention or sympathy following the stock market crashes of 1929 and 2008 are brokers and bank employees. The three actors are incredible, the visual design is exceptional, and the play as a whole is deeply involving and enjoyable, but this is ultimately a generous if not mildly hagiographic rag-to-riches story about a family who work in banking: if you’re expecting a meaningful interrogation of Lehman Brothers’ impact on society or the corrosive effects of late-stage capitalism, you’ll leave feeling strangely short-changed.