1. The Kreutzer Sonata
2. The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice
3. Endgame
4. Annie Get Your Gun
5. Bedroom Farce

London,

Enron is a dashing tale of greed

By Henry Hitchings, Evening Standard  23.09.09

“I’m not a bad man. I’m not an unusual man. I just wanted to change the world.”

Who is this — Stalin, Isaac Newton, Kenny Everett? Why no, in Lucy Prebble’s dashing play it is Jeffrey Skilling, the messianic former CEO of Enron, the Texan energy company which under his stewardship mutated from an ordinary supplier of oil and gas into “a powerhouse of ideas” — for which read “constellation of dodgy business practices”.

Had it not come so soon after the events of 11 September 2001, the collapse of “American’s most innovative company” might well have been a bigger scandal. Prebble’s play, which premiered at the Minerva Theatre in Chichester in July, reclaims its rise and fall as a telling harbinger of the more recent global boom and bust.

A political satire, Enron is also an opulent visual spectacle. Here is the blustering energy of capitalism, the illusion of being a delirious romp; and here too its narcissism and testosterone-fuelled nastiness.

At the centre is Skilling. When we first see him he is a hopeless nerd, yet he transforms himself into a swaggering Übermensch. It’s a role in which Sam West positively revels; he is perfect as this suave, grandiloquent and crass overreacher.

Prebble suggests that the trouble with economic evangelists of his stripe is that their message is so appealingly fantastic. We are sucked in by their stories, and we keep being sucked in, rather than learning to be sceptical.

The supporting characters are just as expertly drawn and played. Tim Pigott-Smith’s Kenneth Lay is totally convincing, while Tom Goodman-Hill proves toe-curlingly credible as the nerdy maths whizz Andy Fastow.

Furthermore, the production at the Royal Court is sumptuous. Rupert Goold’s direction is minutely choreographed yet also has a compelling breadth of vision.

Anthony Ward’s designs are densely imagined and skilfully lit, and together with Adam Cork’s layered soundscape and Jon Driscoll’s video effects create an eloquent tapestry of unsettling information.

But does Prebble shed much light on capitalism? The Enron Corporation is used as a convenient synecdoche for the whole contentious notion of free markets, although really it was a special case. Might it not have been more interesting to expose the flawed praxis of law-abiding capitalists than to focus on capitalism’s most goonish criminals?

Nevertheless, if as a critique of corporate malfeasance Enron is limited, as theatre it delights. It will be transferring to the West End in January, and there is also to be a film version from Columbia Pictures. But if you can catch this lovingly conceived production in the intimate space of the Royal Court, do so.
Until 7 November. Information 020 7565 5000.

Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.

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