Echoes of 1929

The play’s narrative arc makes Lehman Brothers’ hubristic fall seem inevitable. Mr. Russo, though, emphasizes that he always thought the investment firm’s bankruptcy was avoidable and that the Federal Reserve erred in not saving the bank.

So for him, a goose-bump moment came during a scene depicting a previous crisis, the 1929 crash, which Lehman Brothers managed to survive.

“The state will let the first banks fail, won’t lift a finger,” Bobbie, a Lehman grandson, explains in the play, standing in the same glass cube of an office that serves as a stage for the 21st-century action. “They need to look like they aren’t helping.”

He continues: “That’s why we shouldn’t help the other banks in crisis: If they ask for loans, we should say no. The state will do the same. After that first moment, the state will need strong banks and they’ll help us. If we can survive the first month, they won’t let us fail.”

Afterward, Mr. Russo talked about that calamitous 2008 weekend. “It was exactly what happened in the play,” he said. “Everyone was more interested in protecting themselves than honoring commitments.”

When Fed officials asked the heads of competing major banks if they could survive a Lehman bankruptcy, they replied yes, Mr. Russo said. “That probably had a significant impact on the decision to let Lehman go,” he maintained. Soon, those institutions, were receiving the same kind of government assistance denied to Lehman.