Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Bank account

<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Plus: a new musical at the Arts Theatre that’s only for committed head-bangers</span></p>

Stefano Massini’s play opens with a man in a frock-coat reaching New York after six weeks at sea. The year is 1844 and young Henry Lehman has just emigrated from Bavaria to make his fortune. He started modestly with a general store in Montgomery, Alabama, serving local farmers. When wildfires destroyed the cotton crop on which the community relied, Lehman’s business ought to have failed but he saw his opportunity. Whatever possessions the farmers had lost they would have to purchase again. From him. He was joined by his brothers, Manny and Mayer, and they invented the profession of brokerage, ‘middle-men’ they called themselves, buying raw cotton from farmers and selling it on to the clothing factories. The Civil War brought fresh destruction and fresh opportunities. Manny Lehman applied to the governor of Alabama for public funds to rebuild the shattered state. Lehman Brothers became a bank and it remained a family business until the crash of October 1929 when it was saved from liquidation by outside investors.

The first two acts of this play are done with extraordinary power and simplicity. Designer Es Devlin places the actors in a glass-walled office, which occupies two thirds of the stage and makes the Lyttelton’s unwieldy dimensions manageable. The office is slightly raised, like an altar, and it turns slowly on its axis to indicate a shift of time or location. The rear wall is a wraparound screen that bears projected images of the cotton fields, of the Civil War, of the rolling Atlantic, of the incipient towers rising on the New York foreshore at the start of the 20th century. The visual aesthetic is spare and frugal. Black and grey are the dominant colours of the stage furnishings and this palette is matched by the Lehman brothers’ dark Victorian suits, which they wear throughout the show.

Adam Godley, Ben Miles and Simon Russell Beale play dozens of roles as the family expands, grows rich, and passes its secrets on to the next generation.

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