GableStage’s The Lehman Trilogy is an ambitious and epic production. It will have you examining your ancestors, questioning their legacies, and at the same challenging your perception of American capitalism. Weaving personal and societal themes through three acts creates complex and engaging storytelling.
This three-hour play is a hit and it hits hard.
From the moment GableStage announced The Lehman Trilogy as part of their 2023-2024 season, we circled the weekend and smiled like the Cheshire Cat.
To produce this epic play at that small-ish venue?
Well, let’s just say GableStage does not disappoint.
The Lehman Trilogy
The Lehman Trilogy captures the evolution of a simple fabric shop in Montgomery, Alabama, into a towering financial institution through the lives of Henry, Emanuel, and Mayer Lehman.
With innovative staging and storytelling that includes a mix of direct narration, monologues, and multi-role acting, the momentous play feels like a novel, not a play.
Indeed, it is like reading a novel.
It is so rich, deep and fast paced.
Fast paced?
Correct.
And yes, ironic for a production lasting almost 4 hours (including intermissions).
The three actors play over 50 characters between them and they glide off each other like aquatic athletes, surfing points of view like a Costa Rican break shaka bruh from third person omniscient narration to in-scene acting to first person internal monologue.
Around the horn they go. Very innovative script.
Actors Mark H. Dold, Brandon Morris and James Zanelli hit a home-run. This is a 187-page script with each actor playing almost 20 characters in real time. It’s magic and they crush it.
Director Bari Newport expertly navigates all of this like a NY tightrope walker.
Props to the set design of Frank Oliva and his geometric wizardry.
And also to Projection Designer Jamie Godwin.
With regards to the set, its movement, the lighting and projection, the props, the actors and all the characters, at some point you will eventually think to yourself: how the fuck did they do all of this here? It’s such a small space for this monstrous production.
Yet they pull it off.
Without question, the best play we’ve seen at GableStage in years…
The Lehman Trilogy
The Lehman Trilogy is an unmissable theatrical event, offering both a captivating narrative and a thought-provoking examination of financial ethics, family dynamics, and the ceaseless pursuit of the American dream. With its blend of personal storytelling and broader economic analysis, the play is a testament to the power of theatre to engage with complex historical and social themes.
It’s powerful, poetic and gripping.
The Lehman Trilogy is playing at GableStage from March 16 to April 21.
For more info and tickets click here.
