Enron (Modern Plays)

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It was definitely a unique way of telling a real live event and it definitely got the point across about how this company ended up where it ended up. I never understood why billionaires could just be SO greedy but after reading Enron I kind of get it. I read this in an English Seminar Junior year and loved how it bridged the gap between my two majors — the play doesn’t allow for too many intricacies of the scandal, but it is an excellent high-level into one of crazier fallouts in our lifetime.

I haven't been including many plays in my reading challenges lately so I figure I would change that and begin with this one. What keeps me away from this particular subject is the fear of dryness: of technical jargon that, though fascinating, requires a lot of mental effort to slog through.That, in a nutshell, is Enron (the play): the basics of the scandal, what led up to it and the major players involved. Enron is a magnificently imaginative play combining documentarian realism with expressionistic flourishes. the collapse of US energy giant Enron brilliantly reconfigured by Lucy Prebble as classical tragedy' 'Prebble's great skill lies in her ability to take us through complex concepts with ease, without bemusing or, worse, patronising us. The most entertaining parts is when Skilling gets fat on twinkies and when there is a fight between the Traders and Fastow. Thus the complicity of market analysts in Enron's over-evaluation is captured by turning them into a close-harmony troupe.

As with her Litvinenko play last year, A Very Expensive Poison, Prebble turns an oppressively dry, serious news story into a funny, phantasmagorical and multi-textual extravaganza. I mean, this is the issue with reading a play in general, and I'm sure that seeing this staged with some really great actors would make this a more engaging experience. I didn't realize The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron came out in 2003! Tim Walker, the Sunday Telegraph critic, gave it five stars, drawing parallels with the plot to that of King Lear. Drama-wise this was innovative and fresh, likely deliberate by Prebble to reflect the real company of Enron.

SPECIAL NOTE ON MUSIC: The original music and sound design by Adam Cork is optional for production and available through United Agents, 12-26 Lexington Street, London W1F 0LE. In the 2009 Evening Standard Theatre Awards, it won Best Director [12] and was nominated for Best Actor (for West) and Best Play (for Prebble).