The Guthrie is getting into marathoning. In the spring, one of America’s foremost regional theaters became a theater lovers’ destination when it presented “The History Plays,” a Shakespeare trilogy that could be experienced over multiple nights or in one 13-hour day. Now comes a different royal succession saga.
“The Lehman Trilogy” may not require the same kind of time commitment — it’s a three-hour-and-40-minute drama — but it bears similarities to “The History Plays” in that it’s about how multiple generations choose to rule their kingdom. In this case, that kingdom is the company that started as an Alabama fabric shop and gradually evolved into one of the most powerful forces in international finance, Lehman Brothers.
When you consider that it tries to pack 164 years of history into 220 minutes — and to do so courtesy of only three actors playing 71 characters — you have to admire the ambition of this undertaking. And, indeed, the performers are excellent. Yet I found the show ultimately unsatisfying, perhaps because I was hoping for something a little more Shakespearean in its character development.
William Sturdivant (Emanuel Lehman) in the Guthrie Theater’s season-opening production of “The Lehman Trilogy,” an epic play by Stefano Massini that chronicles the saga of the Lehman family, whose patriarch started a small fabric business in 1844. It evolved into a major international finance firm that collapsed in 2008 and brought the U.S. economy down with it. The show runs through Oct. 13, 2024 at the Minneapolis theater. (Dan Norman / Guthrie Theatre)
Stefano Massini is an Italian author whose fascination with the Lehmans evolved from a nine-hour radio play to a five-hour stage production to a novel then back to a play, eventually being adapted into its current three-actor form by English dramatist Ben Power. And it’s easy to see how they could look upon this story of the rise and fall of a business empire as a classic distillation of the oft-mentioned (especially in an election year) “American dream.”
It also could be viewed as a critique of capitalism, for what the Lehman brothers and their offspring built was a company (and, consequently, an industry) that was all about growth for growth’s sake, money chasing after money, the pursuit of larger and larger numbers becoming not a means toward an end, but an end with no endgame.
And that all makes “The Lehman Trilogy” a very interesting business history lesson. But, like the Lehmans’ evolving business model, there’s an emptiness at its center. Despite the three actors’ exceptional skills with chameleonic character transformations, playwright Massini seldom allows us to see what drives them. One executive action follows another, but — for all the direct address of the audience in this play — no one touches upon the why of what they’re doing.
And it feels an incomplete history when you consider that the subject of slavery is never mentioned (save a subtle aside near the end of Act One), even though the Lehmans owned slaves and brokered much of a Southern cotton industry built upon the institution.
All that said, I have nothing but praise for the three actors who bring these characters to life. Among the plethora of characters they portray, Edward Gero is most memorable as hyper-organized idea man Philip Lehman, while William Sturdivant stands out as those ushering the firm into modernity, be it through marketing or ax-wielding swagger. But the most magnetic among them is Mark Nelson, who frames the story as the inventive peacemaker among the founding brothers and the trend-bucking last of the Lehmans.
While the play feels more like a detailed chronicle than a source of insight, director Arin Arbus and the cast have nevertheless made of it a very well-executed theater piece.
Rob Hubbard can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.
‘The Lehman Trilogy’
When: Through Oct. 13
Where: Guthrie Theater, 818 Second St. S., Minneapolis
Tickets: $83-$16.50, available at 612-377-2224 or guthrietheater.org
Capsule: More history lesson than engaging story, it’s a showcase for some fine acting.
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