Reviewed by James Karas
Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy
of the People (1882) is 130 years old and it has proven to be a highly adaptable
play. It starts as a moral issue when a doctor discovers that the waters of a
town are contaminated and naturally he expects gratitude and corrective action
to be taken. The issue turns into communal warfare where political and
financial self-interest turn the doctor from a town hero into to an enemy of
the people.
The latest version of
the play by Rebecca Lenkiewicz opened in London in 2008 and was recently produced
in New York by the Manhattan Theatre Club. It opened on Broadway in September
during one the fiercest and dirtiest presidential campaigns and one feels that
Ibsen and Lenkiewicz tailored the play as a commentary on current American
politics.
An Enemy of the People goes into high gear very quickly as Dr. Thomas Stockmann announces that
the waters of the town baths are contaminated. High gear becomes a gross
understatement as the play moves into speed and intensity that can only be
powered by jet fuel. It is a truly powerful and unsettling moral and political
drama that loses none of its effectiveness by being a familiar story.
For those who followed
the vicious American election campaign with its scant regard for the truth, its
perversion of values and its contempt for people, the play strikes many familiar
chords. Even if you do not care about political campaigns, the play provides a stunning
morality tale about the travesty of the truth and the triumph of political and
financial expediency and self-interest.
Boyd Gaines as Dr.
Stockmann gives a performance of impressive emotional intensity and moral
fervor. He is slowly abandoned by all and in the end is almost completely
destroyed. He remains unshaken in his conviction that the truth will win out
while at the same coming to the conclusion that the majority of people are
idiots. He paints himself as Christ figure and he fails to learn anything about
realpolitik.
His brother Peter
(Richard Thomas) represents the opposite pole. He is a politician who knows
that the truth has little hold on people who may lose money or whose taxes may
be increased. (I am not sure if there were any Republicans in the audience!)
Thomas does excellent work as the conniving and dirty politician who triumphs
over the truth.
Our interest in the
other townspeople is in how their passionate support of Dr. Stockmann turns
into derisive opposition as they maliciously scream “enemy of the people” at
him. We have Hovstad (John Procaccino), the editor of the local paper and his
employee Billing (James Waterston). Both are zealous about the truth and more
broadly about changing the current crop of corrupt politicians. Waterston is
superb as the super-enthusiastic promoter of Dr. Stockmann and then the venomous
debunker. Procaccino’s Hovstad is a more controlled character. Even more evil
is Aslaksen (Gerry Bamman), the printer who pretends to practice rational
restraint but is more malicious for putting up that smokescreen.
Dr. Stockmann does
have the full support of his daughter Petra (a steady job by Maïté Alina and
some support from his practical wife Catherine (Kathleen McNenny).
Michael Siberry plays
Morten Kiil, Catherine’s rich foster father who provides an interesting plot
twist at the end of the play. Siberry is given a ridiculous wig and looks quite
the clown but I suppose he needs to be an eccentric.
The explosive
drama is directed by Doug Hughes.
Dr. Stockmann has the
opportunity of escaping from the corrupt town in southern Norway and going to
the United States which he assumes is more civilized. The irony of the play is
that he views the majority of people as idiots. The question that arises in
current American politics is”who are the idiots?” The majority who voted for
Barack Obama or the majority who elected Republicans to the House of
Representatives?
In the end, it is
perhaps just as well that Dr. Stockmann stayed in Norway.
As for Americans,
whatever that intellectual status or moral standing, one can only regret that the
majority of them did not see the play and enjoyed a riveting night at the theatre.
An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen in a new version by Rebecca Lenkiewicz ran from September 27 to November 18, 2012 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 West 47th Street, New York, NY.
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