The Lehman Trilogy. Directed by Sam Mendes.
National Theatre, July 6, 2018
Three superb actors, one superb Director, Sam Mendes and one brilliant liturgist, Ben Power. SUPERB STUFF.
3h40 is not for the faint-hearted and those that know me know my preference is 90 mins with no interval but THIS… this is pretty close to perfection. I was 100% enthralled and engrossed by this story that I knew nothing of. And it is one hell of a tale.
This is the story of the Lehman Brother’s arrival in the US from Bavaria, the distinctive and complementary characters of the three brothers, their wives, their children and how from genius and smart beginnings greed and capitalism destroyed their legacy. I’m not spoiling it. We all watched in horror and disbelief as Lehman’s collapsed in 2008 when the credit crunched.
This is staged as a black and white film and takes inspiration in some of its characterisations from those films. It’s incredibly effective. In fact the whole staging is genius allowing us to simply see history being made, the evolution and then the writing on the wall.
Our three actors are STUNNING. They play all of the parts between them and they narrate their own story. Sounds odd but this gives us storytelling at its best. It’s very clear what’s going on and what the characters feel. And often this creates more laughter as you can see the actors saying and doing the emotion or action – a masterclass.
The last Mendes production I saw was The Ferryman and this is THAT good. I hope this runs and runs and transfers and wins awards. It’ll be hard to call best leading actor tho, they have to share.
This is the stunner the NT needed after its poorly judged Macbeth.
5/5 A truly epic American tale. Go.
