ANDY DRACHENBERG – You mentioned a lot of the women in this story are women in positions of power. Thinking about it, there is one character that has a unique stance on that idea – Jeffrey Skilling’s daughter. I’m curious if you see her in a similiar way to other characters, or if her role in this piece is more individual.
LUCY PREBBLE – It’s quite funny, we were talking about casting and somebody said “I know this great boy” and I immediately said “NO.” I don’t know why I was so sure about it, but it just would not be the same. It may be a bit slightly self-interested because I sometimes think of myself as the daughter. I feel there’s a vulnerability to a little girl and for a little boy, actually; but there’s something very specific about the relationship between a father and a daughter. For me, she represents the next generation that will have to deal with everything this former generation has done corporately, economically, and environmentally. In a way, that generation feels female to me. We are 52% of the population.
AD – You incorporate several other female characters into the piece (e.g., the Business Anchor, the Congresswoman, the Citigroup Analyst, Lawyer Hewitt, even Skilling’s daughter) Is there any kind of connection for you between Claudio and these other women? Do they together play a broader role in this tale for you?
LP – I think that’s slightly an enemy of writing – to look at things from a gender, or ethnic, or age point of view. Say you start doing that: you start to get self-censoring. To get past that, I try not to think -how do I represent ____ in this? Having said that, I did want to show women in positions of power. I don’t believe women are inherently more “moral” than men – anyone who’s worked in an all-female workplace will tell you it isn’t all “beer and skittles;” it isn’t all of a sudden warm and compassionate and supportive – there isn’t an inherent better morality going on there. I was very keen to share out the complicity between the sexes, however much of it was or is a male-dominated industry.
AD – What led you to create this sort of a female character, rather than include some of the other larger voices in the history of Enron?
LP – There were several really prominent women in the Enron story that I chose not to feature: Sherron Watkins, who wrote the original letter to Ken Lay and caused him to question what was going on at the company; and also Bethany McLean, who broke the original story to Fortune Magazine as a young journalist about whether Enron was overpriced. I didn’t want to include them mainly because I didn’t want to write a story with a “whistleblower” in it. The normal Hollywood movie trajectory would be: you see people doing bad things, and then you get to your central character who tries to bring them down. And what that does to an audience is that it makes them identify with the whistleblower and therefore think that’s what I would do in that situation. Now I happen to believe most people wouldn’t do that – and I include myself in that, so I didn’t want to provide the release valve of a whistleblower in order to make the audience more complicit with the action. And therefore, in a way, I traded the satisfaction in the audience for something that I find more interesting and more complicated than -some people do bad things, and some people point them out.
AD – In Enron, Claudia Roe is your single leading character that is fictional. Is she an amalgam of specific women/men you came across in your research or does she represent an idea in the piece – maybe a Skilling counterpoint or a lens for the audience?
LP – She’s definitely a combination of individuals, but as you say, I wanted her to do something quite specific dramatically in the play. I felt that it would be disingenuous to give her a name that would make her identifiable as somebody, in the knowledge that she is not that person, whereas with the 3 lead male characters, I think I’ve been pretty fair on them from what I know about them. Although I don’t think she’s in any way a sort of paradigm of ethical behavior, and I place her very much amongst the executives, even if she’s an executive with a different world-view from the men.
AD – To say that the Energy & Finance industries of the 1990’s was male dominated is an understatement. How do you think Enron’s environment compares to contemporary playwriting & production today? Though you’ve been labeled a breakout, have you experienced any glass ceilings (or observed them for others)?
LP – I’ve been lucky and never personally encountered a glass ceiling, but I think it is more that things are systemic – it’s difficult to point to anything in particular. I don’t believe that any Artistic Director looks at two equally good plays, one by a woman and one play by a man and consciously decides to pick the one by a man. I think it’s much more subtle than outright sexism. I think theatre is traditionally much more open than the corporate world. I think the corporate world is much less forgiving (or, used to be) of time off and maternity. You need to be there from 7 am – 10 pm in the years you are trying to get ahead, and that doesn’t always work for females in a society where women tend to or choose to take on the responsibility of child bearing. But let’s not forget that the play I’ve written that has so far brought me some success is fundamentally about men. I’d be interested to see if there will be the same amount of success if I write a play about women.
AD – Which concept(s) did you find the most interesting?
LP – I’ve learned it’s not actually as dry as it seems from the outside. All that anyone is ever doing is behaving. It’s all about people in the end – yes, it might be people who create really complicated financial instruments, but then as a writer my first thought is why did they feel the need to do that? Who is that person who did that when no one else was doing that?; and that becomes about character which is really interesting.
AD – You’ve been praised for your ability to make sometimes complicated, often unfamiliar financial concepts (like mark-to-market) accessible to a large audience; evidence that you spent a good deal of time studying these concepts yourself. Did you enjoy spending time with the technical material of this story?
LP – I actually enjoy the research period when I’m writing almost more than any other period (other than rehearsal)! It feels almost rude to go into something with just a sketch of an idea, and I have this controlling need to know as much as it is possible to know about something before I write about it. Also, research is a fantastic way to procrastinate – and as writers, we’re very good at procrastinating. There was a long period of time where I remember sitting on my bed literally surrounded by piles and piles of books, and I realized at some point, I just have to start writing. But once you’ve immersed yourself in that world, it’s amazing how easy it becomes to write, it emerges organically from what you already know. I do a research period and then I will ban myself from looking at any of the research for a couple of weeks and I will only write. My theory is that the things you remember will be the most interesting things by default and are the things you should put in.
AD – Where/how did you discover the strength of incorporating musical and physical elements into ENRON? How do these stylistic performance vocabularies speak to the story?
LP – I’ve never believed in the segregation of musical to play to circus to lecture to standup. I never understood why these things had to be separate from each other. I was really pushing all the time to have other elements in it, whether it be dance or music or video or whatever just out of fear of it being dull. But then I read something about Enron at its height: Enron used to throw these very lavish parties for their employees and they would hire Cirque du Soleil to perform. They would have millions of dollars being spent on this party with canopies and drinks, and then, amongst the party you would have gymnasts, dancers, and choreography going on. I remember when I read that I thought “That’s a perfect metaphor for their surreal and extraordinary and indulgent facade as a company!” So I thought, well, if they did that in real life, then I felt I like I was being given free reign to include these sort of things.
AD – How has your relationship with this piece developed since you began your work on it (or since you quit making major revisions)? After so many months, what is it like to see another rehearsal or performance? Do you still feel the urge to “fix” things? Are you still engaged by it?
LP – Absolutely, but they’re often very tiny. What I found really interesting about this rehearsal process with the American cast is that there are a number of little lines in the play that actually sound very British. Another great thing about Broadway is the number of previews you have, which we don’t have in Britain – if there are larger changes that need to be made you can try getting rid of a section of a scene for a couple nights and then work out if it was really necessary or not. I still feel I haven’t yet let go of it. The stakes are really high and its an American audience, and an American story. I don’t want to get anything wrong. I want it to be the best it can possibly be and as American as it can possibly be. At some point I will step back and stop tinkering with it, but it’s the one thing about theatre that is different from any other art form: the ability to keep altering. We’ve had recent news about the Lehman brothers, accounting scandals that are emerging over the past few days, and Jeffrey Skilling’s appeal being heard at the Supreme Court. We get to respond to that if we choose to by rewriting, whereas when you commit something to celluloid, you don’t have the same ability to do that.
LUCY PREBBLE (Playwright) Prebble won the George Devine Award and the Critics’ Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright for her debut play The Sugar Syndrome at the Royal Court Theatre. On television, her work includes creating the series “Secret Diary of a Call Girl.” Enron is her second play.