Madoff scandal seem like a Broadway play you might have caught? It was.
... I blinked, though, at seeing that Madoff's own sons turned him in. Early last year I sat in the off-Broadway Atlantic Theater in lower Manhattan and watched that same story unfold in "The Voysey Inheritance," a 1914 British play by Harley Granville-Barker as adapted by David Mamet, who with actor William H. Macy founded the Atlantic. It figures. David Mamet and Tom Wolfe are about the only serious writers in our time who see literature in the mechanics of money.
Mr. Voysey is an investment adviser in Edwardian England. He invests money for wealthy Londoners but also for the vicar of his church. His partner in the business is his son, Edward, an innocent who discovers in the ledgers that his father is a crook.
The scene in which Edward confronts his father over a life fleecing friends and clients is compelling, a torrent of talk about investment vehicles, mortgages, bonds, wealth, moral dilemmas, trust, friendship and principle.
This performance was in January 2007, at the height of Wall Street's grandest days. I thought that in a moderately better world every investment banker, hedge-fund guy and Hamptons aspirant would see "The Voysey Inheritance." Its message: Gentlemen, please get a grip.
The fascinating thing about the Madoff affair is no one's talking. How come? From Palm Beach to Geneva, Madrid, Greenwich and the Hollywood hills, nary a peep of reflection or insight. What were they thinking?
Conversations have occurred between sons Mark and Andrew and their father Bernard. What was said?
"Voysey" offers an answer.
Edward to his father: "There are no funds in these accounts. In the accounts we manage. How long has it been going on?"
Mr. Voysey: "I'm sorry to involve you in it."
Edward: "Involve me? I'm your partner. You, we have defrauded everyone who has trusted us . . . D'you mean to tell me that this sort of thing has been going on for years? For more than thirty years!"
Mr. Voysey: "We do what we must in this world, Edward. I have done what I had to do."
There are two versions of "The Voysey Inheritance" available -- Mr. Mamet's adaptation from Vintage and Harley Granville-Baker's longer original scanned into Google Books. Both are transfixing reads against the unfolding backdrop of the incredible Madoff revelations....
Read entire article at Daniel Henninger in the WSJ
Mr. Voysey is an investment adviser in Edwardian England. He invests money for wealthy Londoners but also for the vicar of his church. His partner in the business is his son, Edward, an innocent who discovers in the ledgers that his father is a crook.
The scene in which Edward confronts his father over a life fleecing friends and clients is compelling, a torrent of talk about investment vehicles, mortgages, bonds, wealth, moral dilemmas, trust, friendship and principle.
This performance was in January 2007, at the height of Wall Street's grandest days. I thought that in a moderately better world every investment banker, hedge-fund guy and Hamptons aspirant would see "The Voysey Inheritance." Its message: Gentlemen, please get a grip.
The fascinating thing about the Madoff affair is no one's talking. How come? From Palm Beach to Geneva, Madrid, Greenwich and the Hollywood hills, nary a peep of reflection or insight. What were they thinking?
Conversations have occurred between sons Mark and Andrew and their father Bernard. What was said?
"Voysey" offers an answer.
Edward to his father: "There are no funds in these accounts. In the accounts we manage. How long has it been going on?"
Mr. Voysey: "I'm sorry to involve you in it."
Edward: "Involve me? I'm your partner. You, we have defrauded everyone who has trusted us . . . D'you mean to tell me that this sort of thing has been going on for years? For more than thirty years!"
Mr. Voysey: "We do what we must in this world, Edward. I have done what I had to do."
There are two versions of "The Voysey Inheritance" available -- Mr. Mamet's adaptation from Vintage and Harley Granville-Baker's longer original scanned into Google Books. Both are transfixing reads against the unfolding backdrop of the incredible Madoff revelations....