Enron: the rise and fall of “Enron” takes on too much.

By Patrick Langston | February 21, 2014

OTTAWA CITIZEN February 20, 2014 12:10 AM

Theatre review: Story of rise and fall of Enron takes on too much

Dmitry Chepovetsky who plays Jeffrey Skilling

Photograph by: Wayne Cuddington , Ottawa Citizen

The show: British playwright Lucy Prebble’s uber-theatrical revisiting of the Enron scandal which saw the U.S. energy giant vanish in a cloud of bankruptcy dust in 2001 after the corporation’s senior executives played fast and loose with the financial truth. Music, movement and mask – including corporate types sporting raptor dinosaur heads – are part of Prebble’s semi-fantastical look at Enron’s rise and fall, old-fashioned hubris, and moral sleight of hand.

Pros: A shrewd and sometimes very funny look at endemic greed, the illusion of personal invincibility, and individual and collective moral bankruptcy. Eric Davis is especially good as Andy Fastow, Enron’s deluded and vulnerable Chief Financial Officer.

Cons: Arcane details of business operations and federal regulations don’t always make for scintillating theatre. An overly small acting area hems in the enormity of the Enron story as well as this production’s commitment to it.

Verdict: A play that takes on too much and ends up delivering less than it could; a production that doesn’t have enough faith in itself to ever really stretch its wings.

Written by Lucy Prebble

National Arts Centre English Theatre

At the NAC Studio, February 17 to March 1. 2014.

Continues until March 1. Tickets: NAC box office, 1-888-991-2787, nac-cna.ca