The Lehman Trilogy, Piccadilly Theatre, review: a bankably brilliant theatrical experience

In troubled times, you might think that the last thing audiences would desire is an account of the Lehman Brothers, whose investment bank’s collapse was at the heart of the 2008 financial crisis. But I urge you to see this extraordinary theatrical experience – at once epic and intimate – which works simultaneously as a primer on the history of capitalism, a reflection on the American dream and a deeply moving portrait of a family effecting and affected by the march of history.

It tells the story of three Jewish brothers who, in the 1840s, move from Germany to “the magical music box called America” where they swiftly transform from chancing hucksters to cotton merchants to bankers at the heart of New York’s burgeoning commercial centre.

Over 150 years, we see them move from tangible, tradeable assets such as coffee and the railways, to the bleak rapid spiral of despair caused by the Wall Street Crash – “the day when the sky turned black” – to the embrace of innovations such as cinema and computers, and finally to the slippery, unknowable world of financial services.

The brilliance of Ben Power’s three-and-a-half-hour play (adapted from Stefano Massini’s even longer original) is that you feel as if you are caught up in the whoosh of world events while sharing the hopes and fears of one remarkable family. Three actors – Simon Russell Beale, Ben Miles and Adam Godley – play the original emigre brothers, but many other parts besides. They are the redneck salesmen in pre-Civil War Alabama (where the brothers first lived), coquettish or shrewish objects of desire (Godley is particularly funny as a range of potential wives for Philip Lehman, the intense, ambitious son from the next generation) and future members of the clan, each more American and less European than the last. To watch these three perform is to be caught up in a breathless vaudeville act which makes the capacious running time fly by.

And this is where Sam Mendes’s skill as a director is so obvious. Not only does he guide the actors through a non-stop cabaret, but also elicits a tender sort of intimacy. The strength of the family’s bond (excuse the pun) is palpable throughout, as is their devotion and questing examination of their faith and their inability to be men of consequence as one seismic event after another attempts to shake their foundations.

Beale, Miles and Godley know when to make you laugh (and they do, frequently), and when to ensnare us in the giddy excitement of capitalism. But they also know when to cut you to the quick with an observation of profound emotional truth, such as when we are told that “growing old is to inhabit a new land”. Sometimes it is the creep, rather than the march, of history that is most revelatory.

Mendes and the cast are well served by considerable design innovations. A cyclorama depicts burning cotton fields and skyscrapers dotted with shifting share prices instead of windows. Meanwhile, the set is a rotating glass box – sleek and corporate, but also a capsule that travels through time.

The Lehman Trilogy has already enjoyed runs in London (it debuted at the National last year) and on Broadway, and it is clear that this is a modern classic which deserves a long life in the West End. As social metaphor it is rich, fulfilling and entirely non-judgmental. But, above all, Mendes and Power are saying, “This is theatre”. Go and see it to be entertained and find magic in the ever-changing mythology of world history.

Until August 31. Tickets: 020 7452 3000; nationaltheatre.org.uk

There will be an NT Live broadcast on July 25