Enron, one of the most talked about plays of recent times, is coming to Richmond Theatre later this month with a cast that includes Old Isleworth resident Sara Stewart as its leading lady.
While the men responsible for Enron’s downfall, Kenneth Lay, Jeffrey Skilling and Andy Fastow, are faithfully represented in Lucy Prebble’s critically- acclaimed play, Stewart’s character Claudia Roe is an amalgam of different people who worked at the doomed energy giant.
In the play, Roe resists the speculative and macho economics encouraged by Skilling and co and soon finds herself shunted out of the corporation – it is a juicy role and Stewart has enjoyed getting to grips with it.
She says: “There are lots of sides to Claudia – she is fun and sassy but also strong and ruthless. She’s a great combination of things and in every scene I get to explore a different aspect of her.”
Despite failing to wow Broadway critics, Enron has enjoyed great success in Britain with sell-out runs at the Royal Court and in the West End. Perhaps one of the primary reasons for this success is the play does a fantastic job in making a complex subject accessible – it’s a theory Stewart concurs with.
“What I love about Lucy’s writing is that she manages to take concepts that are not in everyone’s understanding and put them in tangible, almost visual terms,” she says.
“Those who work in finance have told me that they have loved the play – a friend of mine was part of the team that investigated Enron so he really knew this world and he loved the play because it puts the scandal in comprehensible terms and he didn’t find it patronising.”
Enron, Richmond Theatre, September 28 to October 2, for ticket prices and booking information, visit ambassador tickets.com
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