Enron at Moxie is Inventive, Imaginative

Article by Kristen N. Schweizer

The word “inventive” is thrown around MOXIE Theatre’s Enron more times than any other word. Defined as “the ability to create or design new things or think originally,” characters from the show are constantly goading each other for new ideas and solutions to old problems and older greedy, human flaws.

The word “Enron” does not mean anything in Webster’s dictionary. In worldwide culture however, Enron is defined as massive, public, deceitful failure. The collapse of the American corporation stunned investors and analysts and has been analyzed by professors, novelists, journalists, and economists for over a decade since its 2001 collapse.

In her satirical 2009 play Enron, which premiered in Britain where playwright Lucy Prebble (of Secret Diary of a Call Girl series fame) is based, audiences are treated to a truly INVENTIVE production of the Enron scandal. The creativity required to tell such a thorny American tale with laughter and pseudo-morality is an undertaking that MOXIE valiantly proved they are capable of.

Using dinosaur puppets, light saber dance, montages of projections, hundreds of cardboard boxes and a notably well-curated sound design (Matt Lescault-Wood), MOXIE’S creative team has intentionality behind their ingenuity. Directed by Moxie co-founder Jennifer Eve Thorn, the large-cast, creatively-staged production, takes a chorus of unlikable characters, many of whom do not receive a resolution, and gives them the humanity that audiences’ need to discover and understand an otherwise confusing web of deception and math.

“Enron” begins in 1990, when Enron’s newly hired COO Jeffrey Skilling (Max Macke) becomes president of the company and the power struggle to achieve and the maintain. market domination leads him down the slippery slope we all know the end result of. Eddie Yaroch is Andy Fastow, the awkward and brilliant chief financial officer who created phantom companies known as SPEs (portrayed by dinosaur raptors) to hide Enron’s ballooning debt from Wall Street and the general public.

Costumer Jennifer Brawn Gittings, a local favorite whom the word inventive can always be applied to, bring laughter to the script’s dreamlike parables. Enron’s susceptible board members are the three blind mice; the greedy and persuadable Lehman Brothers firm are Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum in a single business suit, while the lawyers have a valley-girl drawl and gauzy Lazy Justice blindfolds.

There’s an inventive scenic office using a series of Russian-style nesting boxes to create box laden secretive walls where Yaroch’s Fastow does his confusing work. This scene and some others highlight how scenic designer Tim Nottage is able to transport complex emotions with some melodramatic shamanism.

Lisel Gorell-Getz is always a pleasure and shows a new side as Claudia Roe, a former contender for Enron leadership. The other notable woman actress is the own director’s daughter Penelope Thorn, adorable in brief projected vignettes as Skilling’s sweet, young daughter.

The laughter and resourceful scenic transitions make Enron runs a surprisingly quick for being over two hours; another reminder that while time is money, it can also be subjective.