Review: Enron
Revealing the laws of destructive capitalism
Enron by Lucy Prebblen , a young-generation British playwright, is an important play. It’s great that the Helsinki City Theatre has just included it in its repertoire, and on a big stage at that, where we are not used to seeing educational, critical and provocative performances about destructive capitalism.
The show shows the rise and fall of the Texas-based energy company Enro from the dizzying growth of the 1990s to the total collapse and trial of the 2000s, mixing fiction, carnivalism and absurd humor with hard fact. Office rats sing and dance, raptor dinosaurs eat up the company’s debts, and Artur Andersen’s accounting firm, covering up the traces of a scam, speaks on top of a puppet and Rauno Ahonen .
No success in America
Enron premiered in 2009 in England, and last spring it was seen on Broadway. In London, the show has been a success, but in New York, its path was cut short due to a lack of spectators. Enron describes the brutal laws of the American economy and reveals the mechanisms that led to the latest economic crisis. Maybe it’s easier to watch it from a distance in Europe, but the same rules and circumvention of them are played here as well.
The value of Enron’s shares, dubbed the world’s most innovative company, soared at the end of the 1990s when the company abandoned tangible and switched to trading intangibles and unfulfilled promises. With accounting crimes, everything was made to look like growth and debts were hidden in shadow companies. The balance sheet was in order and the share price was rising. In 2001, the scam was uncovered – 20,000 employees lost everything, bosses grabbed the money and only some were held accountable.
Kari Heiskanen’s comprehensive and precise direction shoots the issue, is directly social and at the same time entertaining. You can keep up even if you have read less financial news. Enron’s story unfolds like the most edgy drama and classic tragedy. The suction of the hubris of the upswing is pulling and almost makes you cry when George W. Bush is elevated to the presidency with Enron’s support and by any means.
System problem
It is about capitalism and the laws of the market, but the story is told through individuals. The spotlight is on the CEO of the new wave, Jeffrey Skilling, who runs a business with Darwinism, played by Eero Aho with power and admirable naturalness, who first gives a face to cold-blooded greed and finally to bankruptcy and crime.
Seppo Maijala’s CEO Kenneth Lay, the company’s façade, bends to bend according to politics and market demands. Andy Fastow (Iikka Forss), who becomes the chief financial officer, does the dirty work, grabs profits and is the best at shirking responsibility.
The performance reveals the need to find scapegoats, reduce greed to a characteristic of individual people and continue as before. However, the problem is not the ruthlessness and greed of the individual, but the system that enables criminal and reckless business.
The visual world of the performance is handsome and appealing. Money is made in a bubble, a big white box into which reality and the suffering of a small person penetrate through hatches, doors and walls. The world has been simplified and trendiness and glamour have been stripped away.