The Lehman Trilogy – Program

…from the Artistic Director

Welcome to The Lehman Trilogy—a remarkable play about a remarkable family performed by three remarkable actors.

The conceit of the play is that in the corporate board room—immediately after the 2008 financial crash—the crash that brought about the demise of the Lehman Brothers’ empire—the three original Lehman brothers appear. Heyum, Mendel, and Mayer emigrated from Rimpar, Bavaria, and opened a tiny fabric and clothing shop in Montgomery, Alabama.

These same three brothers take us though the entire story—from 1844 through to 2008. With a mixture of surprise and horror, they witness what happens to the business they began. They watch as their descendants take the business to staggering heights of success, and into the depths of failure. They make millions, bend their ethics, and build a towering complex that will eventually topple.

The more “American” the family becomes, the more relentlessly they pursue the American Dream of wealth and more wealth. Their story tracks the evolution of American capitalism. And along the way, the Jewish culture with which these three brothers arrived is adapted, abbreviated, or some would say, abandoned.

I take my hat off—and bow in awe—to these three incredibly gifted actors:
Brian Markinson, Celine Stubel, and Nigel Shawn Williams. I can’t imagine climbing this mountain with any other colleagues—they are artists working at the height of their talents.

Thank you for joining us.

Michael Shamata

…from the Executive Director

When I first read The Lehman Trilogy, late one night, I was swept away by the ambition of its theatrical imagination. It also resonated on a very personal level.

I emigrated from Delhi. As the plane landed in New York, my head buzzed with excitement, anticipation, and yes, my ambitions. In retrospect, I recognize the pressures and expectations that were heaped upon me by others, as well as those
that were self-imposed. I felt that the American Dream was within my grasp, and it was entirely up to me how ardently I would embrace it.

I now have a far more nuanced and jaundiced view of the American Dream, inextricably entwined as it is with Capitalism. Yet I cannot help but admire the myth of the Dream, and how it seduces and captures the imagination of all—the wealthy, the marginalized, and the immigrant.

I do hope you enjoy this examination of the Dream.

Isaac Thomas

Celine Stubel – Mayer Lehman

Celine is overjoyed to be back home at the Belfry with this remarkable team. Theatre highlights include Kindred, The Last Wife, Venus in Fur, Proud, Speed the Plow, And Slowly Beauty…, and A Christmas Carol (Belfry). Elsewhere: The Great Gatsby (Theatre Calgary); Oliver (NAC); Fire, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Blue Bridge); Angels in America, The Graduate, (Arts Club Theatre); Electric Company’s Studies In Motion (Citadel and Canadian Stage); Legoland, (Atomic Vaudeville); All’s Well That Ends Well, (Bard on The Beach); and My Three Sisters (Theatre SKAM). Film and TV credits include All in Madonna, Encore, The Cameraman, Motive, Arrow, and Eadward. Celine is a proud Mom and wouldn’t be here without the immeasurable love and support from her entire family and her husband, Sam.

Nigel Shawn Williams – Emanuel Lehman

For the Belfry: Director for Serving Elizabeth, and Intimate Apparel. Nigel Shawn Williams is the former Co-Artistic Director of Factory Theatre in Toronto. He is a multi-award-winning actor and director. His theatre credits include multiple seasons at the Stratford and Shaw Festivals and most major cities in every province. Selected credits: Harlem Duet (Obsidian Theatre), Belle (Factory Theatre), Angels in America (RMTC, Canadian premiere), Race (Canadian Stage), and Fences (Grand Theatre). Nigel is also heavily active in new play development. He is an educator, having taught at York University, University of Windsor, Dalhousie University, and the National Theatre School of Canada. He can also be seen in films and on television.

Stefano Massini – Playwright

Stefano Massini is a renowned novelist and playwright, the first Italian author to receive a Tony Award. He regularly contributes to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, and he served as artistic consultant at Piccolo Teatro di Milano—Teatro d’Europa. His works, including The Lehman Trilogy, have been translated into 30 languages, and his plays have been performed in more theatres around the world than those of any other living Italian writer—produced as far as Iran and Korea, and staged by directors such as Luca Ronconi and Sam Mendes. Other select works: Intractable Woman, Ladies Football Club, and 7 Minutes. He won many Italian and foreign awards, including the Premio Vittorio Tondelli, the Premio Ubu, the Tony Award, the Drama Guild Award, and the Outer Critics Circle Award. The Lehman Trilogy won the Selezione Campiello Prize, the Super Mondello Prize, the De Sica Prize, the Prix Médicis Essai and the Prix Meilleur Livre Étranger. He recently finished a multi-part play about the history of the atomic bomb, Manhattan Project.

Ben Power – Adaptor

Ben Power is a writer for theatre and the screen. For the last 12 years he has worked at the National Theatre as Associate Director and Deputy Artistic Director, and was responsible for the temporary theatre The Shed. Work for the screen includes Munich: The Edge of War and The Hollow Crown (BAFTA nominations for Best Single Drama and Best Mini-Series). Work for the stage includes adaptations of DH Lawrence’s Husbands and Sons, Euripides’ Medea, and Ibsen’s Emperor and Galilean, all for the National; A Tender Thing for the RSC (produced by the Belfry in 2013); and Complicite’s A Disappearing Number (Olivier and Evening Standard Awards). He was associate director of Headlong where he adapted Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author and Marlowe’s Faustus. He is currently creating a television series for Working Title and is published by Faber & Faber.

Michael Shamata – Director

Michael has been a grateful guest on Lekwungen territory for almost 16 years.

Celebrating almost 50 years in professional theatre, Michael is the Artistic Director of the Belfry, where he has commissioned and directed Home is a Beautiful Word and Forget About Tomorrow. He collaborated with and directed the adaptation of Griffin & Sabine with Nick Bantock and BEING HERE: The Refugee Project with Joel Bernbaum. Other directing credits at the Belfry include Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes, the Canadian premieres of The Year of Magical Thinking and A Doll’s House, Part 2, the English-language premiere of And Slowly Beauty…, and his own adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

An award-winning director, he has created productions at most of the major theatres across the country, including the Stratford Festival, Soulpepper, Canadian Stage, the National Arts Centre, the Manitoba Theatre Centre, Theatre Calgary, and the dearly missed Vancouver Playhouse.

Shawn Kerwin – Set & Costume Designer

Shawn’s work has been seen across Canada and internationally. Recent work includes set design for Come From Away (Gander), set and costume design for Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes (Belfry), The Bakkhai (Stratford), and Sea Sick (international tour). She has designed productions for Mirvish Productions, Artistic Fraud, Soulpepper, Charlottetown Festival, Signal Theatre, Blyth Festival, and others. In 2017 she co-created, with Jillian Keiley, the 150-person outdoor performance float in St. John’s. Future projects include The Goat (Stratford) and The Trial of Maggie Pollock (Blyth Festival). She is a full-time faculty member in York University’s Department of Theatre and Performance.

Leigh Ann Vardy – Lighting Designer

Leigh Ann is from Corner Brook, Newfoundland, and lives in Halifax. She designs lighting for theatre, dance, and opera across Canada

Tobin Stokes – Composer & Sound Designer

Since the late ’80s, Tobin has been fortunate to return to the Belfry as a performer, arranger, musical director, composer and/or sound designer for various productions. He’s even had a couple of short plays premiere at the annual Spark Festival. Musical projects here have featured the music of Leonard Cohen, Patsy Cline, Harry Chapin, Joni Mitchell, and his own opera The Vinedressers. Besides creating for theatre, Tobin composes for opera, orchestra and choir, and scores nature documentaries.

Treena Stubel – Assistant Director

Treena’s directing credits include The Secret in the Wings (University of Saskatchewan), and I, Claudia (Blue Bridge Repertory). She co-directed the remount of the hit musical Ride the Cyclone (Blue Bridge Repertory) and was the original movement director of the Dora Award-Winning Canadian Tour. She is a choreographer, (Bard on the Beach, Caravan Farm Theatre), and has also worked as a dancer, actor, and intimacy director (Belfry Theatre: As Above, Yaga, Kindred, Intimate Apparel, Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes), and has created numerous movement-based works for festivals in Canada and abroad (Hay Festival Wales, Toronto LabCab, Vancouver Dance Centre). Her studies include dance, acting (BFA, University of Victoria), a wide range of physical theatre disciplines internationally, and an MFA in Lecoq Physical Theatre from LISPA in London, UK.

Jennifer Swan – Stage Manager

Born and raised on Lekwungen territory, she is thankful to the Songhees and Esquimalt nations, on whose land she has the immense joy to be living. Jen has been a part of the Belfry since 1999, and it remains one of her favourite places to be. In September 2022, she took a step back from stage management to become the Finance Officer and stage management mentor at the Canadian College of Performing Arts. It was an unexpected gift to be asked to stage manage The Lehman Trilogy this spring, and she is thrilled to be returning to work among longtime friends. She is grateful to both the Belfry and CCPA (Canadian College of Performing Arts) for being so flexible and accommodating, allowing her to have this kind of life.

Meghan Froebelius – Assistant Stage Manager

Meghan is first and foremost a stage manager, even after having once been told (in considering stage management as a career), “If you can think of anything else you’d rather do, do that instead.” She couldn’t think of anything else she’d rather do (having tried really hard to do so) and has since gone on to work at theatres including Soulpepper, Canadian Stage, Centaur Theatre, Thousand Islands Playhouse, and five seasons at the Shaw Festival (including two seasons as assistant producer). Meghan is a graduate of Queen’s University and The National Theatre School of Canada.

Peter Chapman – Author

Peter Chapman is the author of The Last of the Imperious Rich: Lehman Brothers, 1844–2008, a leading reference on the history of the Lehman family