Enron’s Message Continues to Resonate in Sour Economy

Last January, when director Joseph Price, professor of theater, chose Enron among the plays to present for the 2011-2012 season, he couldn’t have predicted the wave of protests against corporate greed that are sweeping the country right now.  

Price did predict the groundbreaking musical, which opens October 13 in Warren Enters Theatre, would resonate with audiences. “Just look at unemployment,” he said. “There is a continual onslaught of bad news.”

Written by Lucy Prebble, Enron tells the story of one of the most devastating economic scandals in modern history through a mix of music, dance, and video. After dishonest and ruthless accounting practices came to light in 2001, the Houston-based Enron Corporation filed for bankruptcy, resulting in the loss of 5,600 jobs and the evaporation of billions in retirement savings.  

“When you look at Enron, you see all of what led up to the financial crisis of 2008—the credit derivatives and credit swaps,” Price said. “They used physicists to create these models so complicated no one would ever understand it. I think people were blinded by this stuff.”

Despite its dark subject matter, Enron is a fun piece of musical theater that a 23-member cast is taking on. “It has a vaudeville quality at times and is very unusual that way,” Price said. “It’s not just a docudrama.”

Members of the board of directors, for instance, are depicted as blind mice, an image taken from an actual Enron commercial. Other characters are dressed as voracious lizards (the shell companies where Enron hid some of its vast debts).

As for the current protests, Price said he is surprised they didn’t occur earlier considering the economic toll the “bailing out of bad decisions” continues to have on the country.

Performances are at 8:00 p.m. October 13-15 and October 20-22, and 2:00 p.m. October 15 and 22. Tickets cost $6 for Buffalo State students; $10 for Buffalo State faculty, staff and alumni, other students, and senior citizens; all others cost $15.

Tickets are available at the Rockwell Hall and Student Union box offices, charge by phone at (716) 878-3005 or online.