It won five Tonys on Broadway, including Best Play and Best Director for Sam Mendes, and now “The Lehman Trilogy” hits the Shakespeare Theatre in D.C. through March 30.
“I think of it as an odyssey, we’re following generational change,” actor Edward Gero told WTOP. “It’s called a ‘trilogy’ much like a Greek play. We’re seeing generations like ‘Yellowstone.’ … What takes seven seasons to watch on ‘Yellowstone’ to find the generational change, the Greeks, the Romans did in one evening, three hours, four generations, and you’re gonna get it in one night. It’s a saga.”
Penned by Italian novelist Stefano Massini and adapted by playwright Ben Power, the three-act play runs three hours and charts several generations of the Lehman family, spanning 164 years of American history.
“They were part of the whole fabric of America from 1844 to 2008 and the story follows their journey as immigrants coming to the country with nothing and basically building an empire,” Gero said. “It follows not only the story of the Lehman family, it also follows the story of the industrialization of America, the whole rise of capitalism in the United States. They become the metaphor or guide through that history of what is America?”
The first act is called “Brothers,” starting in 1844 with Henry Lehman, a German Jew, arriving as an immigrant on Ellis Island in New York City, followed by brother Emanuel Lehman and finally Mayer Lehman. The family soon moves to Alabama and puts down roots in the Deep South until the end of the Civil War in 1865.
“The play starts the night before the collapse in 2008, so we see that office, then we go back in time,” Gero said. “We meet the brothers, the patriarchs, as the first ones to arrive. … We’re on Ellis Island, Dock No. 4 in the port of New York,” sailing to Mobile, Alabama, where there was an established Jewish community.
The second act is called “Fathers and Sons,” raising families during Reconstruction in the Deep South starting in 1865, then moving to New York City before the Wall Street crash in 1929, which triggered the Great Depression.
“One of the brothers becomes the governor of New York, a very progressive governor. Herbert Lehman becomes an ally of FDR; and Philip Lehman, for example, a great art collector, so this family had their influence all across the development of America. It’s extraordinary,” Gero said. “We have beautiful projections designed to evoke the cotton fields, to evoke New York in the 19th century, New York in the 20th century, New York in the 21st century.”
The third act is called “The Immortal,” starting with the 1929 Wall Street crash, the Great Depression, World War II and postwar period. The brothers left the business in 1969, but the company carried their name for decades until the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. during the 2008 financial crisis and Great Recession.
“Even though the brothers are gone … they’re still sort of ghosts. They’re always present,” Gero said. “At the end of the play, we come back to the three brothers from the beginning and think about how before all of this happened there were just three people, immigrants, travelers dreaming about what America could be. … The opening line of ‘The Godfather’ is the same thing here, the opening line of the play is: ‘He had been dreaming of America.'”
It’s all performed by just three actors, Gero, Mark Nelson and René Thornton Jr., each playing dozens of roles.
“It’s an acting gym. This is a circus, We’re pulling out and juggling parts, characters, lines,” Gero said. “It’s a three-hour event, it’s a 210-page text. People ask, ‘How do you memorize all those lines?’ I tell them, ‘When I have, I’ll let you know.’ … It has all those aspects of great, ancient storytelling like, ‘Let’s gather around the fire and the three of us will tell you the story.’ We narrate, we play characters, we do accents, it’s an incredible challenge as an actor.”
Gero is himself celebrating the 40th anniversary of his D.C. acting career, starting in the 1983-1984 season.
“This is my 40th season as a Washington actor … so this piece really feels like a capstone for me,” Gero said.
Listen to our full conversation here.
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