THEATER
Pearl Theater
Public Enemy - Henrik Ibsen
“When a local doctor discovers that the water in his small town’s mineral baths is contaminated, it sets off a cataclysmic showdown between a corrupt government that doesn’t want to be blamed, an angry community that doesn’t want their economy ruined, and a single man’s determination to tell the truth—no matter the cost to family, town, or self.
The play offers a story of political corruption (a poisoned water supply and the conspiracy to cover it up) and one man’s almost self-destructive need to reveal the truth. This adaptation offers a 90 minute compression of the Ibsen original that streamlines the action of the story, but sticks closely to his style. The setting and costumes have been updated to reflect 2016, and, although it doesn’t draw a one-to-one comparison with Flint, MI (the play doesn’t entirely allow it), that narrative is very much in our minds. It’s an incredibly timely piece, with a great cast.”
WHY PUBLIC ENEMY?
“When I read Harrower’s lean adaptation, I was stunned. His writing allows Stockmann to go for the jugular, to confront the hypocrisies of his town, and root out the corruption inherent in its local politics. Ultimately, my approach is to show that there is a price for excessive adherence to principle – and there’s a greater price for society in ignoring one’s truer ideals.”From Hal Brooks, Director and Artistic Director
“Henrik Ibsen pulled off one of theater’s great hairpin turns…” –The New York Times
“instead the audience is faced with a real live polemic, sitting at the edge of their seats…listening to a man truly asking questions about the corrupt and false nature of leaders…and asking us to confront the evils majorities let happen, and how willful ignorance will lead us to the brink of disaster”
–New York Theatre Review
“The incandescent timely core of the play shines through…when push comes to shove, self-interest can so thoroughly dominate otherwise decent people that the general good gets subverted…it is a message as timely today as when Ibsen first wrote it.”
–Plays to See
"Ibsen’s parable of the collision of truth and politics in the public sphere takes on new immediacy in this punchy and raw adaptation from the playwright behind Broadway’s Blackbird. When Dr. Stockmann finds that the town’s tourist-friendly baths contain lethal levels of toxins, he sets out to clear the air and quickly finds his friends and neighbors poisoned against him."
By ELISABETH VINCENTELLIOCT. 25, 2016
Jimonn Cole, foreground, in “Public Enemy,” David Harrower’s adaptation of Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People.”
Henrik Ibsen pulled off one of theater’s great hairpin turns in “An Enemy of the People.” That play’s titular character, Dr. Thomas Stockmann, starts off as a noble whistle-blower, only to turn into a fanatical crusader who delivers a proto-Ayn Randian aria of elitist contempt for the masses.
The play is admittedly a bit of a slog, so in 2013, David Harrower (the esteemed Scottish author of “Blackbird”) retitled it “Public Enemy,” spruced up the translation and shaved the five acts to a 90-minute sprint — which the Pearl Theater is now presenting in a satisfyingly sturdy staging.
Thanks to its subject’s evergreen qualities, this Ibsen work from 1882 is revived fairly often. It was last seen on Broadway in 2012, and the next year the Brooklyn Academy of Music presented a feisty Thomas Ostermeier production that incorporated audience interaction and David Bowie music.
There is nothing nearly as provocative here, but Hal Brooks’s modern-dress production does well by the story. Harry Feiner’s ash-gray wooden set looks lifted from a Scandinavian design magazine, its clean lines contrasting with the messy acrimony between Stockmann (Jimonn Cole) and pretty much everybody else.
The doctor sets the conflict in motion when he realizes that the town’s lucrative spa baths have been contaminated by industrial runoff, and he recommends that they be closed for a lengthy cleanup. The mayor (Guiesseppe Jones) objects to that costly idea and turns the townspeople against Stockmann, his brother.
On the doctor’s side are his wife (the excellent Nilaja Sun, who has earned praised for her solo shows “No Child …” and “Pike St.”) and the sea captain Horster (Carol Schultz, in a role written for a man).WRITE A COMMENT
It’s easy to sympathize with the embattled Stockmann when he fights for public health; less so when he delivers a fiery rant against the tyranny of an ignorant majority over an educated minority. Mr. Cole fully comes into his own as Stockmann turns his last stand into a grandstand about the “majority getting what it wants.” For him, that amounts to the “gang rape” of democracy.
Being ostracized only reinforces the doctor’s messiah complex. In this society, you can be corrupt or you can be a zealot. What bleak options this thought-provoking show offers.
“instead the audience is faced with a real live polemic, sitting at the edge of their seats…listening to a man truly asking questions about the corrupt and false nature of leaders…and asking us to confront the evils majorities let happen, and how willful ignorance will lead us to the brink of disaster”
–New York Theatre Review
“The incandescent timely core of the play shines through…when push comes to shove, self-interest can so thoroughly dominate otherwise decent people that the general good gets subverted…it is a message as timely today as when Ibsen first wrote it.”
–Plays to See
"Ibsen’s parable of the collision of truth and politics in the public sphere takes on new immediacy in this punchy and raw adaptation from the playwright behind Broadway’s Blackbird. When Dr. Stockmann finds that the town’s tourist-friendly baths contain lethal levels of toxins, he sets out to clear the air and quickly finds his friends and neighbors poisoned against him."
Review: In ‘Public Enemy,’ a Noble Whistle-Blower Turns Fanatic
By ELISABETH VINCENTELLIOCT. 25, 2016
Jimonn Cole, foreground, in “Public Enemy,” David Harrower’s adaptation of Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People.”
Henrik Ibsen pulled off one of theater’s great hairpin turns in “An Enemy of the People.” That play’s titular character, Dr. Thomas Stockmann, starts off as a noble whistle-blower, only to turn into a fanatical crusader who delivers a proto-Ayn Randian aria of elitist contempt for the masses.
The play is admittedly a bit of a slog, so in 2013, David Harrower (the esteemed Scottish author of “Blackbird”) retitled it “Public Enemy,” spruced up the translation and shaved the five acts to a 90-minute sprint — which the Pearl Theater is now presenting in a satisfyingly sturdy staging.
Thanks to its subject’s evergreen qualities, this Ibsen work from 1882 is revived fairly often. It was last seen on Broadway in 2012, and the next year the Brooklyn Academy of Music presented a feisty Thomas Ostermeier production that incorporated audience interaction and David Bowie music.
There is nothing nearly as provocative here, but Hal Brooks’s modern-dress production does well by the story. Harry Feiner’s ash-gray wooden set looks lifted from a Scandinavian design magazine, its clean lines contrasting with the messy acrimony between Stockmann (Jimonn Cole) and pretty much everybody else.
The doctor sets the conflict in motion when he realizes that the town’s lucrative spa baths have been contaminated by industrial runoff, and he recommends that they be closed for a lengthy cleanup. The mayor (Guiesseppe Jones) objects to that costly idea and turns the townspeople against Stockmann, his brother.
On the doctor’s side are his wife (the excellent Nilaja Sun, who has earned praised for her solo shows “No Child …” and “Pike St.”) and the sea captain Horster (Carol Schultz, in a role written for a man).WRITE A COMMENT
It’s easy to sympathize with the embattled Stockmann when he fights for public health; less so when he delivers a fiery rant against the tyranny of an ignorant majority over an educated minority. Mr. Cole fully comes into his own as Stockmann turns his last stand into a grandstand about the “majority getting what it wants.” For him, that amounts to the “gang rape” of democracy.
Being ostracized only reinforces the doctor’s messiah complex. In this society, you can be corrupt or you can be a zealot. What bleak options this thought-provoking show offers.
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