The Lehman Trilogy

A Stunning, Thought Provoking Play

★★★★★ Feb 09 ’23

On a cold September morning in 1844, a young man from Bavaria stands on a New York dockside dreaming of a new life in the new world. He is joined by his two brothers, and an American epic begins. 163 years later, the firm they establish – Lehman Brothers – spectacularly collapses into bankruptcy, triggering the largest financial crisis in history.

This play is one of the most stunning pieces of theatre in London at the moment. Do anything you can to get hold of a ticket, I would recommend the show to almost everyone, although it certainly isn’t for young children. It has quite complicated themes, which although are explained well younger children would not understand it. This is certainly not a show for children it can certainly be enjoyed by older children. The show was over three hours long split into three acts, yet you never find yourself looking at your watch waiting for the show to be over, you find yourself on the edge of your seat watching three incredible actors not tell a story but to tell a journey. The First act was entitled ‘Three Brothers’ the second ‘Father & Son’ and the third ‘Immortality’.

The set and costumes while making complete sense were minimalistic, each of the three men on stage wore a black and white suit which represents the original three brothers and what the company used to be – a suit shop. They wear the same costume throughout the whole show, representing their legacy, which later becomes tarnished. The set is a modern glass office, spilt into different rooms. The office starts to spin out of control towards the end of the show, representing how the company starts to spin out of control, too much power, too many wrong decisions. This show also used the evermore popularising idea of projections. On the curved back wall there were many different projections corresponding to the particular scene that was taking place. Whilst the audience are taken to so many different places in the show there is only have one set piece. In theory this sounds like it shouldn’t work, but it does, which is kind of the way that the whole show is directed, things that on paper seem like they shouldn’t work but it does, and you never question it for a second.

As I mentioned earlier there were only three actors in the show. Who each played a number of roles. But the characterises of these roles meant you could instantly recognise which character they were playing at each time. It was an incredible evening at the theatre, and an exquisite performance. I fully recommend this show!