Enron fraud laid bare at Royal Court

The scandal and financial collapse of US energy giant Enron is being dramatised in a new play.

The production, called Enron, examines the accounting fraud which led to the meltdown of the corporation in 2001, and is set to open the Royal Court Theatre's autumn season.

Playwright Lucy Prebble, whose previous work includes ITV2's Secret Diary Of A Callgirl starring Billie Piper, said: "The story of Enron reads like a microcosm of the economic journey of the last few decades. The highs, the hubris, the fall, they're all there.

"This is an exciting show for people who want to understand what's happened over the last few years by going back to the daddy of collapses."

Samuel West, the son of Timothy West and Prunella Scales, is to play the lead as Jeffrey Skilling, Enron's chief executive who is serving a 24-year prison sentence in Colorado for fraud and insider trading.

It is directed by Rupert Goold and also stars Amanda Drew, best known as the psychotic Dr May Wright in EastEnders, Tim Pigott-Smith and Tom Goodman-Hill.

Enron is a co-production with Headlong Theatre and Chichester Festival Theatre and will come to the Royal Court on 17 September.