Enron Critics

Question 1

Billington on capitalism in Enron

Answer 1

Capitalism exposed as a con-trick and illusion.

Question 2

Amanda Martin on the nature of Enron.

Answer 2

Enron was like a boys locker room.

Question 3

Clements on the structure of Prebble’s Enron

Answer 3

Enron is structured around the rise and fall of its protagonist, Skilling, as much as it is focused on the company’s boom and bust,

Question 4

Prebble on Roe.

Answer 4

I don’t think she’s in any way a sort of paradigm of ethical behavior, and I place very much amoungst the executives, even if she’s an executive with a different world-view from the men.

Question 5

Eve Poole on the excessive risks of the trading floor.

Answer 5

Markets are invariably run by men and men are biologically conditioned to respond to perceived threats by competing to win.

Question 6

Rachel Clements on the legacy of Enron

Answer 6

the Enron crisis and the global financial crisis … looks like an early warning sign, making the play feel both timely and urgent.

Question 7

Rachel Clements on Prebble’s use of language

Answer 7

Just as Prebble uses dialogue and monologues as a way of conveying the key points of the story to the audience …

Question 8

Enron practices were what according to Clements

Answer 8

A culture of competitive machismo was at the heart of Enron’s practices.
- An attitude of both bravado and recklessness.

Question 9

Rachel Clements on the company’s fatal flaw

Answer 9

This interest in winning, power, and an arrogant over-confidence becomes part of both Skilling and the company’s fatal flaw.

Question 10

Rachel Clements on the responsibility of the Enron fiasco

Answer 10

the story aims to expand its questions of culpability and responsibility