ENRON

An article by Richard    No Comments

This weekend’s adventure to London included an experience at the Noel Coward Theatre for the penultimate showing of Lucy Prebble’s ENRON. Did it crash like the market?

…Not as hard as it could’ve done.

It’s impossible to ignore the piece’s justified appropriateness, considering the economy’s current state and to be fair to Lucy Prebble’s play, the message is delivered with punch and wit.

Where this production fell a little short for me, was with certain key performances that for different reasons where simply not believable. While the contract between actors and audience is a little more complex and humane than a test of believability, you sometimes can’t help but notice personal acting glitches when they are literally shoved in your face.

One example of this would be some of the vocal technique. It must be said that most of the cast could be heard perfectly throughout, Jason Langley in particular making the effort of filling a four-tier theatre seem effortless. Some of the leads, (who weren’t bad enough to be named and shamed by a fairly long way) unfortunately made this simple task seem uncomfortably effortful and quite simply at times being too much for the underlying intention of the text. The same ratio between good and bad goes for the American accents, including the biggest crime of all – sticking an intrusive “r” at the end of “America”.

Admittedly, though, I wasn’t listening to the radio and Rupert Goold’s stage was, as ever, completely owned by the actors including the often difficult transitions seem like a F1 car racing by – fast and cool. Anthony Ward’s set mirrored the stainless steel stock exchange feel that our corporate world often adopts – incorrectly or not. This, coupled with Jon Driscoll’s spot-on video and projection design created the perfect atmosphere for the audience to recognize the world we were entering into (and indeed, the difficulty of escaping it at times.) No wonder Goold nabbed him again for Mike Bartlett’s Earthquakes in London.

It’s a shame to see ENRON leave the West End, but just like the recession [we hope] everything has it’s time and place before it moves on. While this piece is rooted with relevancy, the jury’s out on whether it’s given us enough to learn from our economical mistakes permanently.

Richard.