Enron by Lucy Prebble: Play for performance

Though it wasn't the first hit play about chicanery in the world of high finance – Caryl Churchill's Serious Money caused a stir in 1987 – Enron (2009) could claim to be the only play to date to turn the real-life collapse of a US energy giant into an all-singing, all-dancing night out at the theatre.

Even more astonishing is it to find that its 28-year-old author, Lucy Prebble, had only written one other stage play, The Sugar Syndrome, prior to writing what many regard as one of the defining plays of the new millennium.

Rupert Goold's razzle-dazzling production of Enron opened at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, in 2009, transferring to the Royal Court and afterwards to the Noel Coward Theatre early in 2000, followed by a UK tour. It fared less well on Broadway, despite some rave reviews. However, the all-important New York Times poured cold water on its box office prospects by declaring that it was ‘all show and little substance.’