By Mal Vincent
The Virginian-Pilot
© September 15, 2011
Follow the money and you’ll get at the truth.

But wait a minute! Following the money is not that easy in a society that has been turned upside down by one of the biggest recessions of modern times. Add to the mix that it was all inspired by greed, and you look for a villain. Add to the confusion when you realize the villains are all around us. One target is Enron, the company whose double-dealing actually resulted in jail sentences.

“Delightfully Corrupt,” and “A Rolicking Evening of Theater!”
– Mal Vincent, Virginian-Pilot

Reserve Seats Now! 757-441-2160 for Tonight, Friday, Saturday, Sunday

You’d hardly think it a subject for a rollicking evening of theater. Think again. Check out the Generic Theater’s performances through Oct. 2 of “Enron.” The London hit and Broadway flop has been turned into an imaginative outing that is as double-dealing as its subject.

Here they are, future jailbirds who hide their losses (at least until they get caught). Here is a young conniver who plays the dirty game adeptly. Here is a powerful, cold woman who makes many of her deals stretched on top of office desks. Here is a cast deftly mixed and rehearsed to perfection by director Matthew Friedman.

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Technically, the show is by far the most intricate, and eye-boggling, in the long history of the Generic Theater. Images flash on all sides above the playing area that serves as a stage. Local newscasters, such as Cathy Lewis and Barbara Ciara, mouth breathless mock news reports that show how the stock is turning. They add credibility to an incredible situation.

Kent Collins is both ruthless and boyish as Jeff Skilling, the wonder boy leader of Enron who, seemingly, turns a profit no matter the tactics. Ethan Marten is eerily conniving and sniveling as Andy Fastow, the rise-at-all-costs climber who, as pictured here, masterminds the hiding of losses. Marten is so convincing that you half expect him to take the stage twirling a dark moustache. Chris Kypros, known for his piano accompaniment of silent movies at the Naro Expanded Cinema, is both boisterous and naive as Ken Lay, the elder head of the company who seems oblivious to what his young whippersnappers are doing.

Deadliest of all is Jeannette Rainey as Claudia Roe, a dragon lady of high finance who pushes around the big boys and eventually falls victim to her own game. You can hardly believe she’s the same nice person who usually introduces plays at the Generic.

They are backed by a cast of almost 20 – both live and on film. For the intimate Generic playing area, that’s quite a horde.

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Saturday, September 10, 2011

Ambition Opens 2011-12 Season at the Generic

Enron Exposes the Criminal Roots of Irrational Exuberance

Norfolk’s Generic Theater opened its 31st season Friday night (Sept. 9) with the Virginia debut of British playwright Lucy Prebble’s Enron, a seriously ambitious project…. Let’s hope, at least, they get an excess of love and appreciation from packed houses for bringing this important show to the stage way-down-under in Chrysler Hall….

Do you remember Enron? I barely did, after the mind-numbing procession of corporate malfeasance that followed, continuing, of course, to this day. Yet remembering the Enron scandal is instructional, for with hindsight it becomes apparent that the energy company’s collapse was a canary in a coal mine. It signaled the presence of the subtle poison of self-undoing which unregulated free market capitalism had injected into our social contract, especially when practiced by certain highly torqued alpha males whose natural habitat is Texas.

Not that Texas has a monopoly on toxic alpha males in this land of the free. Wherever brains and massive ego outweigh common sense and old-fashioned decency, you will find the Jeff Skillings and Andy Fastows of this world busy dreaming, scheming, and making deals—smart guys who vastly underestimate their capacity for human error or, in obsolete parlance, Biblical sin….

Ken Lay, the founder of Enron, likes to see himself as the benevolent patriarch of the corporation. As played by Chris Kypros, he comes across as an old-fashioned Chamber-of-Commerce type who believes business is America’s religion. He easily becomes enabler to the get-rich-quick schemes proposed by Skilling, played by Kent Collins, who himself is brought to a higher level of corruption by a numbers man, Andy Fastow, played by Ethan Marten.

Marten’s Fastow—bordering on psychopathic—is a work of art, a stand-out performance. His accounting bargain with the devil, symbolized by three dancing reptilian figures he plays with like a lion trainer, is the show’s most pointed, poison-tipped dagger. Collin’s Skilling, on the other hand, is much less blind to the danger he’s in and so more vulnerable. His undoing is his ego-mania, his arrogant conviction that he’s smarter than anyone else. Collins is convincing as the confident Skilling but less emotionally certain of the ruined Skilling, who was ultimately convicted of nineteen counts of conspiracy and fraud and sentenced to 24 years in prison, a mighty fall for a proud elitist. Fastow, by cooperating with prosecutors, got off with two counts and six years, though he was the brains behind the creative accounting that led to a debt of $30 billion and, in 2002, bankruptcy of a company once considered the leading light of American business genius.Hence, it is always best to consult attorneys related to bankruptcy because they will let you know what must you consider before filing for bankruptcy.

Enron continues at the Generic Thursday through Sunday until Oct. 2. All performances are at 8 except for Sunday matinees at 2:30. Tickets are $15 general admission, $12 for seniors, military, and students, and $10 for groups of ten or more. For information and reservations, call 757-441-2160 or, on the web, go to Generic Theater

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