Enron (Modern Plays)

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Not only is this an exceptionally conceived story, it taught be a huge amount about financial systems and the banking crisis.

I've yet to experience much else in the genre, but what strikes me most about Enron (the play) is how . It was one of the most successful smoke and mirror shows in business history so it makes sense that Lucy Prebble's play would be built upon the thrill of the illusion, creating a spectacle so large and impossible to hate that it gave the world rose tinted glasses. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others.

It highlights the characters of Kenneth Lay (chairman and CEO), Jeffery Skilling (COO), and Andrew Fastow (CFO), their interactions, their roles in creating the scandal, and their reactions when it all came crashing down. SPECIAL NOTE ON MUSIC: The original music and sound design by Adam Cork is optional for production and available through United Agents, 12-26 Lexington Street, London W1F 0LE.

That, in a nutshell, is Enron (the play): the basics of the scandal, what led up to it and the major players involved. But the triumph of the evening is that it renders Enron's rise and fall in exciting theatrical terms, and leaves us with the feeling that, as the bonus culture thrives while others lose their jobs, the lessons of this vast collapse have still to be learned.

I haven't been including many plays in my reading challenges lately so I figure I would change that and begin with this one. But the pulse and vigour of play and production stem from their ability to make complex financial ideas manifest. In The New York Times review of the Broadway production, Ben Brantley wrote, contrary to some other critics, "even with a well-drilled cast that includes bright Broadway headliners like Norbert Leo Butz and Marin Mazzie, the realization sets in early that this British-born exploration of smoke-and-mirror financial practices isn’t much more than smoke and mirrors itself.

Equal parts low comedy and high tragedy, this fast moving play will hold your attention like a gruesome train wreck. Produced by Headlong, "Enron" premiered at Chichester's Minerva Theatre on 11 July 2009 and opened at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in September. What keeps me away from this particular subject is the fear of dryness: of technical jargon that, though fascinating, requires a lot of mental effort to slog through. The play itself is absolutely HUGE in scope, thus more like a musical than your ordinary theater play. This is definitely one of the best plays I’ve read, so much thought and humour went into every scene.

The play concerns the financial scandal and collapse of " ENRON", the American energy corporation, based in Texas. But no serious play on Broadway can survive a withering attack from The New York Times, which carries the force of a papal indictment". Look, the main problem with this play is that it requires you to already have an intimate knowledge of Enron, Jeffrey Skilling, and a whole lot more. Inspired by real-life events and using music, dance and video, ENRON explores one of the most infamous scandals in financial history, reviewing the tumultuous 1990s and casting a new light on the financial turmoil in which the world currently finds itself. I wanted to read this because I knew Prebble wrote on Succession, and I think her work there does a better job at laughing at the characters while still empathizing.

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. In the 2009 Evening Standard Theatre Awards, it won Best Director [12] and was nominated for Best Actor (for West) and Best Play (for Prebble). Even financial innocents can follow this as Fastow shows boxes encasing ever smaller boxes lit by a flickering red light symbolising the basic investment. It's definitely not for everyone (as witnessed by how badly the play bombed on Broadway, closing after less than a month, even with the lovely Norbert Leo Butz in the leading role) but for those with an open mind and a willingness to go with the flow, ENRON is unlike anything in modern theatre.I thought it was too short, as there seemed to be a build up of the rivalry between Roe and Skilling, but it ended quickly when she was fired. Enron (stylised as ENRON) is a 2009 play by the British playwright Lucy Prebble, based on the Enron scandal.