Theatre News

Simon Russell Beale to star in National Theatre's The Lehman Trilogy alongside Ben Miles and Adam Godley

Ben Power’s play will be directed by Sam Mendes

Ben Miles, Simon Russell Beale and Adam Godley
Ben Miles, Simon Russell Beale and Adam Godley
© Dan Wooller for WhatsOnStage

The National Theatre has announced the cast of The Lehman Trilogy, directed by Sam Mendes, which runs in the Lyttelton Theatre in July.

Simon Russell Beale, who last appeared at the National Theatre in Mendes' King Lear in 2014, will play Henry Lehman, as well as the Lehman Brothers founder's sons and grandsons.

Ben Miles (Wolf Hall, Bring Up The Bodies, Betrayal) and Adam Godley (The Pillowman, Private Lives) will star alongside Russell Beale as the other two brothers, Emanuel and Mayer.

Ben Power's piece charts the rise and fall of the Lehman Brothers company, the famed financial services firm, spanning generations and years as the text follows the company's humble origins and eventual, catastrophic downfall. Power has adapted the play from Stefano Massini's original Italian work.

Mendes directs the piece after the success of his production of Jez Butterworth's The Ferryman, which opened at the Royal Court and is currently running in the West End.

Of the show, artistic director Rufus Norris said: "It was a play first performed in 2013-14 and caused a stir – people were complimentary about it. It has been produced all over Europe, but this is its English language premiere. It's in three parts, a trilogy in one night; dealing all the way through to 2008. It was actually Sam who saw the show, loved it, and came to us to see if we could do it."

The Lehman Brothers will open at Lyttelton Theatre in July.