Stefano Massini’s World-Wide Hit Unmasks Capitalist Bravado

by Barry David Horwitz

With a magnificent rafter-reaching glass and steel revolving cube, “The Lehman Trilogy” depicts American capitalism from the Alabama cotton fields to high-rise Wall Street–right up to the Crash of 2008. Stefano Massini’s extraordinary novel, adapted by Ben Power, reveals a truth: the Lehman Brothers never considered the public good or social costs.

Acclaimed director Sam Mendes pits “American Dream” against “American Scheme.” Three immigrant brothers become fabulously powerful. They speak to us directly as they dream up money-making schemes built upon slavery and the financial shenanigans that bring down their firm after their deaths.

“The Lehman Trilogy” covers from 1844 to the collapse of Lehman—a stunning panorama of America that includes the Civil War, the Crash of 1929, and two World Wars. Three amazing actors play the brothers, brilliant in both tragedy and comedy.

Before the Civil War, Henry Lehman (pitch perfect John Heffernan) debarks in New York harbor as a hopeful young German immigrant, stunned to find himself in “Am-ERR-i-CA!” With the Statue of Liberty floating behind him, he embodies every immigrant’s dream. We love wide-eyed Henry but his brilliance gives way to profiteering. No one mentions the slave labor on those cotton fields.

Soon Henry is running a textile and clothing store in Montgomery, Alabama—a small shop with a creaky door. The stage-filling revolving cube and the beautiful projected views of water, fields, and skyscrapers take us on down a winding and heartrending family history. The Lehman family’s journey exposes a growing web of greedy, corrupt, and self-dealing schemes that finally exposes their bank as financial fraudsters in the 20th century.

In the powerful drama of the three brothers, each has a distinct personality, and each actor plays roles ranging from a squalling infant, to a seductive bride, to a menacing marketing manager. Their genius is to project “confidence,” converting skeptical power-brokers to their self-promoting plans.

Mesmerizing Heffernan makes every syllable a revelation, as he tips his head, delivering precise pronouncements. Henry’s ghost speaks through the family doctor, directing his brothers to move to New York because it’s “Time.”

As Emanuel, Harold W. Overshown provides the powerful “Arm’ to implement Henry’s “Brain.” After all, “Henry is always right.” Confidence is their hallmark—with a touch of brutality.  They become the “middlemen” who broker cotton to Northern factories. Soon they control 24 plantations.

Youngest brother Mayer (multi-talented Aaron Krohn), called “The Potato,” enforces a tricky balance between Henry and Emanuel, with a great talent for humor. But Mayer’s privileged son turns sour, claiming “immortality.” The new century brings a new breed of Lehman.

We witness the burning of the fields, the brutality of the Civil War, the suicides of Black Thursday. But the Lehmans survive and conquer. They brought us invasive “marketing” that made shopping our mantra.

The glorification of the so-called American Dream emerges forcefully, as the two remaining brothers turn ruthless.  They find a way—as the giant, spinning, transparent cube reminds us of their company’s doom.  As the generations flow by, the speed picks up and the offspring get quirkier. As a precocious child, Philip Lehman (mercurial Heffernan) recites names and states from memory. Philip is a fascinating genius who lacks any humanity.  He knows the answers—he calls it “strategy.”

Director Mendes’  dramatic twist on Dream turning Nightmare displays our glories and our follies. It’s a gripping story, stunningly acted and staged. We are still on that speeding train, but to where?  “The Lehman Trilogy” delivers an epic journey of emotions, strategies, and encounters that have forged our lives.

“The Lehman Trilogy” by Stefano Massini, adapted by Ben Power, directed by Sam Mendes, set design by Es Devlin, costumes by Katrina Lindsay, video by Luke Halls, lighting by John Clark, music composed by Nick Powell, pianist Rebekah Bruce.

By The National Theatre, U.K. & Neal Street Productions, at ACT, San Francisco. Info: act-sf.org – to June 23, 2024.

Cast Aaron Krohn, Howard W. Overshown, and John Heffernan.  

Banner photo: Howard W. Overshown (Emanuel Lehman), John Heffernan (Henry Lehman), and Aaron Krohn (Mayer Lehman). Photos: Kevin Berne