The Lehman Trilogy premiered in Europe just five years after the eponymous bank’s collapse and then arrived at London’s National Theatre a decade on from the financial earthquake of 2008. (Broadway, and five Tony awards, followed.)
There is power in being reminded of the reckless opportunism and avarice that led up to that moment. Stefano Massini’s drama, adapted by Ben Power, shows this through the extraordinary trajectory of the Lehman brothers, Henry, Emanuel and Mayer, 19th-century Bavarian Jewish immigrants who become Alabama shopkeepers, cotton brokers and finally magnates at the helm of one of the largest banks in the US.
