\nL-R: Steven Lone; Bruce Turk; Jacob Caltrider
\nPhoto Credit: Karli Cadel Photography <\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfad NEW! San Diego Theatre Newsletter<\/p>\n
There\u2019s something almost mythic about \u201cThe Lehman Trilogy,\u201d a story that begins with a single man stepping onto a dock and ends with the reverberations of a global financial collapse. Now playing at Cygnet Theatre through April 26, this production is epic in every sense: sweeping, ambitious, unexpectedly funny, and, even at a three-hour runtime, utterly engrossing.<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfad NEW! San Diego Theatre Newsletter<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t let the length scare you. Even if you couldn\u2019t explain the stock market under duress (like me), the storytelling is so vivid and human that you\u2019re pulled in from the very first moment, and the evening flies by.<\/p>\n
\nL-R: Steven Lone; Bruce Turk; Jacob Caltrider
\nPhoto Credit: Karli Cadel Photography
<\/p>\n
The play opens in an eerily quiet modern boardroom before rewinding to 1844, when Henry Lehman (Bruce Turk) arrives in America from Bavaria, \u201cthe head\u201d who is full of ambition and armed with little more than determination. He is soon joined by his brothers: Emmanuel (Steven Lone), the forceful \u201carm\u201d who can get things done with strategic and singular focus, and Mayer (Jacob Caltride), the youngest brother known as the \u201cpotato,\u201d smoothing tensions as the family business evolves from a small Alabama shop into a financial empire. From there, the story expands across generations, charting the rise of not just a company, but a nation\u2019s economic identity.<\/p>\n
Every character is played by these three extraordinary performers, who collectively portray more than 70 characters. All three are exceptionally nimble, nuanced, and fully committed, as they shift seamlessly between ages, genders, and generations with nothing more than a change in posture, voice, or expression. It\u2019s theatrical alchemy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Under the direction of Kim Strassburger, the production balances history, humor, and humanity with remarkable precision. Her staging makes full use of the intimate black box space, playing with time, space, and location, and yet the audience is never lost. There\u2019s a meticulous attention to detail here that elevates the entire production, no surprise given Strassburger\u2019s background as a performer, teacher, and dramaturg.<\/p>\n
\nL-R: Steven Lone; Bruce Turk; Jacob Caltrider
\nPhoto Credit: Karli Cadel Photography
<\/p>\n
\u00a0A subtle but striking motif runs throughout: the rule of three. It\u2019s not just in the trio of performers, but echoed in the staging itself, the repetition of tables, the lighting grid above arranged in threes, the structure of the three acts, even the reduction of Shiva throughout the generations from a full week when run by the family, to 3 minutes when the firm is run by a board, this repetition creates a visual and thematic rhythm that mirrors the rise, expansion, and eventual collapse of the Lehman empire.<\/p>\n
The play, adapted by Ben Power from Stefano Massini\u2019s original text, retains a lyrical, almost poetic quality. It\u2019s rhythmic and richly descriptive, giving the piece a sense of momentum even as it spans more than a century and a half.<\/p>\n
Technically, the production is just as compelling. Scenic designer Matthew Herman creates a clean, flexible playing space, while Sammy Webster\u2019s LED panels evoke the harsh glow of office lighting before bursting into unexpected color. Blake McCarty\u2019s digital scroll of financial data frames the story\u2019s beginning and end, with ship docks, ever-evolving signage, and the New York skyline in between.\u00a0 Costumes by Jeanne Reith and sound by George Ye round out a cohesive, imaginative design. Special mention goes to dialect consultant Vanessa Dinning and cultural consultant Todd Salovey, whose work helps ground the performances in specificity and authenticity.<\/p>\n
\nL-R: Steven Lone; Bruce Turk; Jacob Caltrider
\nPhoto Credit: Karli Cadel Photography
<\/p>\n
Within its scope, the play often sidesteps the darker, more complicated aspects of the Lehman legacy. The role of the firm in the 2008 financial crisis is acknowledged more as an endpoint, and similarly, the story largely glosses over the company\u2019s connections to slavery and the broader human cost of the wealth it chronicles. Women, too, are relegated to the margins, frequently reduced to caricatures rather than fully realized figures. These omissions don\u2019t diminish the production\u2019s power, but they do leave noticeable gaps in what is otherwise a sweeping narrative.<\/p>\n
Still, \u201cThe Lehman Trilogy\u201d lands as both spectacle and cautionary tale. Like fables we\u2019re told as children\u2014don\u2019t stray from the path, don\u2019t trust too easily\u2014it carries a warning beneath its grandeur. The rise of the Lehman brothers, fueled by ambition and ingenuity, mirrors the promise of the American Dream of building something vast and powerful; their fall reflects its perils and what happens when that power outpaces its humanity.<\/p>\n
How To Get Tickets<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cThe Lehman Trilogy\u201d is playing at Cygnet Theatre through April 26th.\u00a0 For showtime and ticket information, go to www.cygnettheatre.com<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Photo Credit:\u00a0Bruce Turk, left, Jacob Caltrider, and Steven Lone in Cygnet Theatre\u2019s production of Stefano Massini\u2019s play \u201cThe Lehman Trilogy.\u201d (Karli Cadel)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Reader Reviews<\/p>\n To post a comment, you must register<\/a> and login<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\ud83c\udfad NEW! San Diego Theatre Newsletter Get all the top news & discounts for San Diego & beyond.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-243506","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-san-diego","9":"tag-san-diego-headlines","10":"tag-san-diego-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}