Playwright Amy Herzog has once again taken a beloved Henrik Ibsen classic and made it more accessible — and shorter — without cheapening its worth. This time it’s An Enemy of the People at Circle in the Square, tautly directed by Sam Gold and wonderfully acted by Jeremy Strong and Michael Imperioli.
I had high expectations having enjoyed Herzog’s adaptation of A Doll’s House last year and I was not disappointed. I’ve liked both plays since I first read them in college. Ibsen was a revolutionary. Many people were outraged to see a wife and mother leave her family in A Doll’s House. I understood Nora’s need for independence and loved that a man from that time had created her. But Ibsen was writing for long 19th century Norwegian nights. Enemy, especially, can drag at times and come off as didactic. Herzog and Gold’s production is well paced throughout, reducing the five act play to two hours with no intermission. They are wife and husband collaborating on their first stage production together.
It’s a story of greed and political self-interest that, unfortunately, is as timely as 2020. Dr. Thomas Stockmann (Strong) is a small town doctor who discovers that the town’s water is toxic and warns of a pandemic if the situation isn’t addressed. He could be a fictional Dr. Anthony Fauci. All we have to do is think back four years to the fierce divide between red states and blue over COVID restrictions and we can understand Stockmann’s plight. Fortunately Fauci wasn’t stoned as Stockmann is but had he been in a small southern town he could have faced a violent attack.
When the play opens Stockmann has returned to his hometown on the coast with his grown daughter, Petra (Victoria Pedretti), after living in a remote region until his wife died. This is one of Herzog’s changes, cutting out the character of the wife who in the original play is a shrill opponent of her husband’s principled stand. I didn’t miss her.
The town had always attracted, on a small scale, people suffering from various ailments because of the healing power of its hot springs. In Stockmann’s absence, under the direction of his brother, Peter, who is mayor (Imperioli), big plans to turn the town into a major resort and spa are well under way, creating an abundance of jobs and the promise of wealth to all who invest.
At first the doctor is esteemed for discovering the contamination. But when he calls for all plans for the resort to be stopped while an expensive, years long rebuilding of the water system is undertaken, the townsfolk turn on him swiftly.
Ibsen, considered the father of modern drama, was a moralist. Arthur Miller said he was greatly influenced by Ibsen’s plays. Herzog has said the same. In Miller’s case this is most obvious in his 1948 drama All My Sons in which Joe Keller, a self-made industrialist in World War II, discovers that a plane part at his manufacturing plant is defective but allows production to continue rather than face a costly work stoppage. When a plane crashes and kills all onboard Keller frames his business partner. Like Ibsen, Miller knew that when taking the moral road has a high price tag many people will leave their morals on the roadside and keep going.
The action in Enemy is well served by the scenic design company dots, as well as the theatre itself, which is in-the-round. In the first act simple furnishings, in keeping with Norwegian sensibilities, create a dining room, living room and newspaper office. I was thrown at first by what turned out to be the most unusual set change I’ve seen in a long time. Before I realized what was happening the furnished rooms gave way to a pub and the audience was invited onstage for a drink in what we were told would be a five minute break. It turned out to be more like 20 minutes to serve the lines of people waiting. Some audience members had been asked to take seats onstage to represent the people at what becomes a town meeting. I didn’t see how that contributed to the scene. They were incongruous in their sneakers and casual clothes against David Zinn’s evocative period costumes.
But the set allows Stockmann to climb onto the bar to try in vain to make his case. It highlights him as the solitary crusader he has become, who has now been deemed an enemy of the people. Luckily he survives their stoning and tells Petra they will go to America where things like that don’t happen. This draws laugher and applause. He’s probably right about not being stoned. We used bullets now instead.
This was the most satisfying production of An Enemy of the People I’ve ever experienced. I’m looking forward to seeing what Herzog has in store for us next. Hedda Gabler, please.
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