William Sturdivant, Mark Nelson, and Edward Gero Photo by Dan Norman

Arin Arbus, who staged The Lehman Trilogy at Washington, D.C.'s Shakespeare Theatre Company in March of this year, directs the Guthrie's production on the Wurtele Thrust Stage. While the play does not call for the usual use of the thrust stage, with its exits ramps beneath the tiered audience seats, the enormity of The Lehman Trilogy fills the vast playing area, even with only three actors. Upon entering we are met by a stage covered in shredded paper (the work of scenic designer Marsha Ginsberg). This sea of shreds is the debris of a mammoth financial power, America's fourth largest, when, torn asunder on September 15, 2008, it declared bankruptcy. Records were shredded to protect whoever might need protecting. Against one corner of the stage is a huge pile of the stuff, suggesting an unending amount of refuse still to come.

Hurling back in time we arrive at 1844, when 23-year-old Heyum Lehmann (Edward Gero), a Jewish immigrant from Bavaria, arrives is America and declares "Baruch Hashem" (praised be God) upon his safe journey and good fortune. After changing his name to Henry Lehman, he lands in Montgomery, Alabama, where he opens a shop selling fabrics and men's suits. In 1847 he is joined by his younger brother Emmanuel (William Sturdivant) and in 1850, by youngest brother Mayer (Mark Nelson). The playwright attributes distinctive temperaments and personal gifts to each brother, showing that their composite strengths make their great success an inevitability.

Between them, they make choices that seem always to focus on one thing–the business must grow. They add implement sales to the region's plantation owners, then, when a disaster leaves the cotton-growers unable to pay, the brothers accept raw cotton in trade, which they sell at a profit to a broker in New York. This becomes a bonanza after the Civil War when the Lehmans loan funds for rebuilding to devastated plantation owners, to be repaid with a third of their cotton yield. Thus, they take on a role new in the world of commerce: the middlemen. From lending money and dealing with brokers it is an easy slide for the brothers into banking. A New York office is opened, and to cotton is added trading in coffee, steel, railroads, tobacco, on into the twentieth century with motion pictures, televisions, products to fuel the nation's defense, nascent computer technology, and home mortgages. In 2008 they moved as equals among those deemed "too big to fail."

Each of the three brothers acts as a narrator, the three actors switching off seamlessly. In addition to each portraying one of the Lehman brothers, each takes on the role of one of their most significant progeny. Gero is Phillip Lehman, Emmanuel's fast-talking American-born son who grabs hold of the company from his old-world elders. Sturdivant is Herbert Lehman, Mayer's son who bucks against raw capitalism to become an esteemed governor of New York State. Nelson is Bobby Lehman, who sweeps the company into the twentieth century, surviving the Depression, profiting from World War II, and constantly changing course–depicted in a gripping metaphor as an endless bout of dancing "The Twist" until his own obsolescence. Lehman Brothers was then no longer led by anyone who was, or had ever been, a Lehman.

Each actor portrays a host of others: wives and toddlers, brokers and interlopers, victims of Black Friday and financial vultures. They carry an enormous load, and the three on stage at the Guthrie perform magnificently. Kudos, too, on the great range of dialects each is called on to employ. To lift up just one particular moment of brilliance for each: For Gero, it is the audacity of Phillip, upstaging his father, Emmanuel, in the negotiation of a deal, an act that declares an unspoken shift of influence to the next generation. For Sturdivant, it is his awakening as Emmanuel, arriving in New York City and being forever changed, as if infected, by the opportunity to amass wealth and influence far beyond what could be hoped for in Alabama. For Nelson, it is Bobby Lehman displaying before our eyes the dissipation of his life as he twists away his fortune and control across the decades.

Ginsberg's set includes a suspended matrix, like the dropped ceilings in a modern commercial building in which lighting is concealed. This matrix rises to open up the space, or lowers to suggest the compressed environment in which high-stakes business is conducted. YI Zhao's lighting is a crucial element of the production, altering moods and carving out spaces on the open stage. Sound designer and composer Michael Costagliola furnishes the ambient sounds of the epochs the Lehmans' pass through and provides musical themes, using different instruments for each major character, a replacement for the onstage pianist that was part of the Broadway production. Sound and light together are used to stirring effect to represent the carnage of the Civil War.

Hannah Wasileski's sepia-toned projections depict the historic panorama through which the Lehmans journeyed. Anita Yavich designed the costumes, which keep each actor in their original mid-19th century suit they wore as immigrant, embellishing them along the way with hats, coats, and other accessories to portray other times and personas, male and female.

The fact that the Lehman brothers were Jewish is an integral part of the play. Hebrew expressions occasionally tossed in, the holidays of Sukkot and Shavuoth used as metaphors, and plot points around Shiva, the traditional Jewish mourning practice, and a child's Hebrew school lesson keep their identity in our minds. As Jews, their story is much like that of other immigrants who came to America and to boost their family fortunes. The risk inherent in underlining the Lehmans' Jewishness regards the tropes of Jews being motivated solely by the pursuit of wealth. The Lehmans were not the only Jewish immigrant family to pursue wealth, but many Jewish families had other goals–such as pursuit of education and culture, giving back to their community, or freely practicing their faith. If the Lehmans had such goals along with their pursuit of wealth, the playwright has chosen not to make them known to us.

We are not shown what, if any, good works the Lehmans used their money to pursue, only their constant drive for "more." That word, "more," is used, in this context repeatedly. The play's exposure of capitalism built on a rotten foundation–after all, it was slavery that produced the cotton which was the initial source of the brother's wealth–and growing in every direction until it became unsustainable and doomed to fail by an excess of that which nourished it: greed. This is a worthy depiction of the makings of America's economic success and the greatest threat to its endurance. The case before us happens to originate with a Jewish family, but it is not a Jewish story–it is an American story.

I bring up these last points not to keep anyone away from The Lehman Trilogy, but to prepare one to see it critically, to understand this as but one variation among many on the roller coaster American Dream ride, with its twisty climbs higher and higher, and the inevitable free fall. Sure, regulations have been enacted to place safety nets under the free-falling coaster, but there are those who find the nets an encumbrance on their climb and would just as soon be rid of them. If nothing else, The Lehman Trilogy makes a clarion call to strengthen and protect those safety nets, but it may call for us to go further and consider the viability of the roller coaster's structure to survive over the long haul.

Regardless of how you interpret the history, or on which side of the economic equation you find yourself, The Lehman Trilogy is a brilliantly constructed play, a demonstration of stagecraft at its highest level of invention, that makes its long running time feel like a swift and thrilling ride. With it, the Guthrie's 2024-2025 season is off to a fantastic start.

The Lehman Trilogy runs through October 13, 2024, at the Guthrie Theater, Wurtele Thrust Stage, 618 South 2nd Street, Minneapolis MN. For tickets and information, please call 612-377-2224 or visit GuthrieTheater.org.

Playwright: Stefano Massini, adapted by Ben Power; Director: Arin Arbus; Scenic Design: Marsha Ginsberg; Costume Design: Anita Yavich; Lighting Design: Yi Zhao; Sound Design/Composer: Michael Costagliola; Projections Design: Hannah Wasileski; Resident Dramaturg: Carla Steen; Vocal Coach: Keely Wolter; Movement Coordinator: Lorenzo Pisoni; Jewish Studies Consultant: Pamela S. Nadell; Historical Consultant: Dr. Soyica Colbert; Resident Casting: Jennifer Liestman; NYC Casting Consultant: McCorkle Casting, Ltd.; Assistant Director: Anna Moskowitz; Stage Manager: Karl Alphonso; Assistant Stage Manager: Z. Makila.

Cast: Edward Gero (Henry Lehman), Mark Nelson (Mayer Lehman), William Sturdivant (Emanuel Lehman).