http://www.flickr.com/photos/lostonroute66/4366051257/

Enron, playing at the West End's Noel Coward Theatre, is based on the events of the corporate scandal.  A lawyer, giving the opening monologue, explained what we see may or may not be true.  It is a dramatization after all.  The production started slow.  Enron contained a good bit of corporate America bashing.  The voice of reason come only from low-level employees, never from anyone in a position of authority.

While there were aspects of the production I feel feel short or relied too heavily on stereotypes, it is certainly a unique experiment, bringing financial scandal to the stage.

Character development focused on greed and ambition.  The conclusion drawn at the end of the story, however, was unexpected.  All progress, Samuel West playing Enron exec Jeffrey Skilling explained, comes via bubbles.  Bubbles come via greed, ambition, hope, and most of all… money.

Enron was full of American pop culture references.  During the interval (as intermissions are called here) the daughter of a British family sitting next to me was telling her parents she was happy she recognized a few of them.

There was a considerable amount of profanity, I assume to show the vulgar nature of the characters.  Seemed overused to me.

I enjoyed the dramatized history lesson.  The play really did make difficult economic and accounting theories easy to understand.  The characters for the most part, however, never developed or grew.  Perhaps this is exactly what the playwright wanted to say about American corporate culture.  The characters did show how disconnection with reality is contagious and reinforcing.  

Once the play stopped being a synopsis of events, the characters came to life.  There were a couple of dance numbers, barbershop quartet, puppetry, mouse and velociraptor masks, and light saber fights.  The set and props were minimal.  Lighting was superb.  Lots of techno music.  Visually, the production was stunning.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lostonroute66/4366799212/

A display above the stage kept track of Enron's stock price throught the production.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lostonroute66/4366054191/

The connection to the events of September 11th both puzzled and disturbed me.  Planes are not held up by faith.  They continue to fly even when the passenger know nothing of aerodynamics.  In a market bubble, the plane IS held up by faith.  When faith is lost the plane (market) crashes.  This was accompanied by images of the Twin Towers.  Dust and debris were replaced by shredded paper.  Was there a causal connection implied?

Tom Goodman-Hill, playing Andy Fastow, who created Enron's shadow companies was the most engaging of the characters.  Perhaps this was because he was the only character who experienced growth through the narrative.  His demons were embodied in Jurassic Park Velociraptors, wearing business suits.  Through his performance, I found it difficult to tell if he eventually confessed his deeds to clear his conscience or cut a deal.

Amanda Drew, playing Claudia Roe, gave an excellent performance of a woman fighting an uphill battle in male-dominated corporate culture.  Roe wanted to build, to create something tangible, as opposed to showing paper profits.  Her performance was the most vulnerable of the cast.

I believe Enron will come to Broadway this spring.  I'm interested to see how it is received.  I hear there is a movie in the works as well.  If it's anything like the production, I would recommend seeing it.