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With The Lehman Trilogy, a joint effort of Theatre Calgary and Arts Commons Presents, it’s the production, not the play, that dazzles.
Italian playwright Stefano Massini’s history of the Lehman brothers, their sons and grandsons, as adapted for the English stage by Ben Power, is more storytelling than drama. In three hours, through three acts, three actors unspool Massini’s often poetic ramblings about the dangers of capitalism and the murky corners of the American Dream. The rise and fall of the empire that Henry, Emanuel, Mayer and their sons and grandsons built and lost could make for a tedious, dull evening, especially for anyone not enthralled with economics. However, the mesmerizing excitement created by director Sarah Garton Stanley, her designers and technicians and three multi-talented actors ensured that didn’t happen.
Massini’s script takes its audiences from when Henry Lehman arrived in New York from Bavaria in 1844, to Alabama, and back to the crash of the Lehman financial empire in New York in 2008. That’s 164 years of major events in America’s history, as well as the Lehman family’s personal history.
Henry (Michael Rubenfeld) is joined by his younger brothers Emanuel (Alex Poch-Goldin) and Mayer (Diane Flacks), and all three marry and have children. Chosen sons are welcomed into the hallowed offices of the stores, banks and financial institutions, while wives and daughters slip dutifully into the background. America experiences the Civil War, the Great Depression, the terrorist attacks of 2001, and the financial crisis of 2007. Though intriguing and enlightening, on its own, little of this history lesson is particularly emotionally involving or devastating.
Years before the Civil War, a fire destroyed most of the plantations in Montgomery, Ala., where the Lehmans had their dry goods store. Through projections, videos and special effects, this family tragedy is made so memorable, but the more devastating Civil War is just reported. From subtle to breathtaking, the trio works its magic for the full three hours of the show.
Garton Stanley’s staging is remarkable. She makes sure the play never feels static by carefully and astutely moving her actors around the stage, and moving the set itself.
Rubenfeld, Poch-Golding and Flacks create the tension, excitement and humour this play desperately needs through their delivery. The energy they bring to their storytelling is electric and compelling. You want to hear what they have to say, and they always make it seem vital, even if it is sometimes simply rattling off facts and dates.
The three actors play dozens of characters who enter the brothers’ lives, and they make the most of playing the women the men reject or pursue. It’s all vaudeville-style caricature but it’s effective and this play needs levity. Most impressive are the characterizations the actors bring to the major Lehman men. They are so distinct and revealing. Yet it’s difficult to really connect with any of them, any more than it was to Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Abraham Lincoln or Catherine the Great when you studied them in history classes. You may marvel but they don’t feel genuinely real.
To the immense credit of everyone involved in this production, the three hours speed by, and the visuals created by the designers and technicians (Haui, Sophie Tang, Michael Gesy, AMy Keith) are second only to the powerhouse performances.
The Lehman Trilogy runs in the Max Bell Theatre until Nov. 3.