Like a dramatic Tardis, Henrik Ibsen’s play about whistleblowing, entrenched power and populism crashes through 142 years and lands on today’s bruised principles. A terrific Matt Smith stars in a dynamic modern refashioning of An Enemy of the People by director Thomas Ostermeier of the Schaubühne in Berlin (English version by Duncan Macmillan). The production tweaks Ibsen’s feminism and lights up some gloomy corners with humour. It is an urgent but tendentious rendering of an ambivalent play.
Public health versus economic security. Institutional openness versus cover-ups and spin. Ibsen’s central concerns could hardly be more on the pulse of today. Dr Stockmann (Smith) discovers that the water supply to the municipal baths is polluted. The case for closure is evident and Stockmann has the eager support of journalists – until his brother, a local government official, argues that closure will destroy the town’s newfound prosperity. The news about contamination disappears.
