I didn’t expect to be so entertained by the play about the Enron corporate scandal.
But Enron: The Corporate Collapse That Shook the World is not just any play. It’s a fast-paced, skilfully written story that takes audiences on a high-voltage ride through modern capitalism.
And Canberra’s Mill Theatre, where Enron is playing, is not just any theatre. It’s a gem of a venue with just 67 seats – so small that when you’re sitting in the front row for Enron, you feel as though you’re on the stock exchange floor, right there in the thick of things.
Run by Lexi Sekuless Productions, Mill Theatre is in the Dairy Road precinct, located in a former cool room that has been transformed into a cutting-edge performance space. Opened in November 2022, it is the first private enterprise theatre of its kind in the ACT.
It’s the second time I’ve seen a production at Mill Theatre. The first play I saw, The Shoe-Horn Sonata, was brilliantly performed and executed, setting a high bar.
Enron rises to the challenge. What could have been a dry story about accounting fraud is both thrilling and exhilarating in the hands of British playwright Lucy Prebble, one of the lead writers on HBO’s Succession. With biting wit, she exposes the greed of Enron’s founders as they push the limits of financial deception.
The American energy giant’s involvement with Lehman Brothers, and the subsequent collapse of financial trust, set the stage for the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. If you don’t think you’ll understand the machinations of how the fraud took place, Prebble makes it clear – and savagely funny and theatrical at the same time.
Jay James Moody is totally convincing in the role of Enron CEO, Jeffrey Skilling, who did a deal and served only 12 years of his 24-year sentence. A co-founder of Sydney’s Hayes Theatre Co, Moody is co-author of The Dismissal, an Extremely Serious Musical Comedy which won the David Williamson Prize for Excellence in Writing for Australian Theatre and the AWGIE for Best Musical Theatre at the Australian Writers’ Guild annual awards.
Enron founder and CEO, Ken Lay, becomes Jen Lay in the Canberra production, played by the gifted Andrea Close who also had a lead role in The Shoe-Horn Sonata. Oliver Bailey plays chief financial officer Andrew Stuart Fastow, and Lexi Sekuless plays Claudia Roe, a fictional composite of several real-life women at Enron. They – and all the cast – are proof of the talent amongst Canberra creatives.
Enron is Mill Theatre’s most ambitious production yet, and judging by attendances, it is clearly resonating with audiences.
With jittery financial markets, behemoths like Tesla, Amazon, and Meta dominating the world stage, and crypto among other current challenges, this incisive exposé is as relevant now as it ever was. Entertaining and thought-provoking, Enron: The Corporate Collapse That Shook the World, is not to be missed.
Enron: The Corporate Collapse That Shook the World, is on at Mill Theatre until August 9.
Playing Wednesday to Saturday at 7:30PM, and Saturday matinees at 2:30PM. Tickets: $50 ($40 concession).
Information: www.milltheatreatdairyroad.com
Bookings: https://events.humanitix.com/enron-july-august-2025-mill-theatre-at-dairy-road
All photos supplied by Lexi Sekuless Productions and used with permission.
