Review: Enron

When losses are also sold as profits


The American energy company Enron collapsed into the largest bankruptcy in the history of the United States in the fall of 2001. Before that, it had been a dazzling success story. However, the business, the wholesale of gas and electricity, was not on a sustainable basis, and the accounts had been blatantly falsified for years and air had been pumped into share prices.

Reality thus provides the ingredients for a dizzying drama. Helsinki City Theatre has just picked up a play by young Lucy Prebble , which premiered in the UK only last year.

The Lesson in the Speculative Economy, directed by Kari Heiskanen, is an electrifying performance. Set designer Antti Mattila dares to keep the large stage quite empty. Still, it’s full of action and crowd scenes, the rhythm holds and there is no idleness despite the demanding topic. The viewer is facilitated by the use of narrators who briefly shed light on some key points. A carefully used video image adds an extra dimension.

Enron is largely a men’s play. The management trio and at the same time the villains of the play, CEO Jeffrey Skilling (Eero Aho), Chairman of the Board Kenneth Lay (Seppo Maijala) and Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow (Iikka Forss) play strong roles. Aho, in particular, is complete Teflon in his character’s ruthless ambition and greed.

“If an Enron employee doesn’t wake up at four in the morning with a pounding heart, he’s a bad employee. Only the weak and incompetent go to work for the state,” Skilling declares.

Enron shows the company’s upswing, the rush of success, speed blindness and sliding into illegal means. The euphoria of victory is comparable to sex and hunting – or war? The way debts were hidden in auxiliary companies is brought to the stage in a delicious visual way. There is also a frequent scene in which the company turns off the lights in California by speculating on electricity deals.

The company’s management rolled up its millions in a flash before the collapse, and investors’ funds were also secured. The Republicans, led by father and son Bush, managed to get solid election support from the company. Instead, 20,000 workers lost their jobs, health insurance and many also lost their pension savings. Shareholders and creditors were left licking their hands.

The bold and escalated true story would have needed some human crack. Humans made these decisions as well, not robots. Skilling’s little daughter asks the questions with the sincerity of a child that the father does not want to stop to think about, and does not stop. A short, heated conversation with the janitor represents the only contact with the employees.

As we know, greed and speculation did not end with the bankruptcy of Enron. For example, the Greek government’s accounting tricks and the top pay rises for Finnish pension managers ensure that the play remains hotly topical.