Comparative Drama

On March 12, 2020, crisis struck Broadway. In response to the worsening COVID-19 pandemic, then–New York governor Andrew Cuomo banned all public gatherings of more than five hundred people, effectively shuttering all Broadway theatres (only for a month, per the initial projection, but the theatres would be dark for a year and a half). That same day, Michael Paulson of the New York Times opined that "Broadway—central to, and symbolic of, New York—is not only the pinnacle of the American theater world, but is also big business," and he predicted the shutdown would "cost tens of millions of dollars for investors and artists and associated businesses, and will likely trigger the collapse of some plays and musicals that will be unable to survive the delays and losses."¹ The persisting economic crisis precipitated by the global pandemic bears remarkable similarities to the 2007–8 financial crisis, whose aftershocks have continued to reverberate in the legacy of austerity measures and reduced public spending, a centerpiece of Conservative fiscal policy in the United Kingdom since the Cameron administration.² Both events have revealed, with appalling clarity, the gulf between rich and poor: while the middle and working classes have faced increased job precarity, food insecurity, inequitable access to healthcare, and a staggering decline in private wealth, the financial elite have managed to get on perfectly well (in many cases, accruing wealth at a rate even faster than usual).³ In many ways, this chasm—a product, or indeed perhaps an objective, of the capitalist status quo—is precisely what is at stake in one particular Broadway show, imported from London, that was forced to close two weeks before its scheduled opening. [End Page 67]

The Lehman Trilogy (2018), fresh from sold-out runs in the West End and Off-Broadway, appears, on paper, to be thoroughly British fare.⁴ The collaboration of an impressive team of British theatre heavyweights—directed by Sam Mendes, translated into English by Ben Power, designed by Es Devlin, and starring a trio of acclaimed English actors, Simon Russell Beale, Ben Miles, and Adam Godley—the premiere production at London's National Theatre earned near-unanimous praise.⁵ But there is very little of Britain in the play itself. Documenting the 164-year-long story of Lehman Brothers, one of the largest investment banks in the United States—from its origins as a fabric shop in 1940s Alabama to its catastrophic collapse in 2008—The Lehman Trilogy carves two parallel narrative paths: first, the story of three generations of the Lehman family, Jewish immigrants from Bavaria who become increasingly deracinated from their cultural identity and traditions as they assimilate into American life; and second, the story of a mounting capitalist orthodoxy that fundamentally transforms commerce, trade, and social life itself. After all, argues scholar Mario Barenghi, "the story of the Lehman family is also a considerable piece of the history of US capitalism, from early dawn to triumph, from crisis to recovery, from vertiginous expansion to its ultimate collapse."⁶

The play's arrival in London followed a lengthy, transnational production history on the European continent. Written by Italian playwright Stefano Massini, the play was workshopped first under the title I capitoli del crollo [Chapters of the Collapse] and aired as a radio play on Rai Radio 3, one of Italy's state-owned public radio stations, in November 2012. Its official theatrical premiere, however, was a French production, Chapitres de la chute, translated by Pietro Pizzuti and performed in Paris at the Théâtre du Rond-Point in 2013. It would receive its Italian premiere two years later, as Lehman Trilogy (without the definitive article), at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan in a production by acclaimed director Luca Ronconi, his final show before his death in February 2015, just three weeks into the run. The production would be remounted at the Piccolo two years later, due to popular demand.⁷ By the time The Lehman Trilogy's English-language premiere opened in London in 2018, Massini's play had already received productions in fourteen countries across continental Europe.⁸ [End...