Cast

Synopsis

A classic tale of civic pride and vested interests, as relevant today as when it was written nearly 100 years ago. Dr. Stockmann, a popular and hard-working public figure, discovers serious pollution in the town’s brand new spa. But this new facility is the town’s pride and joy and a source of great income. Stockmann tries to publicise this health-hazard but the Mayor – his own brother – believes that it is Stockmann who is a menace and who should be stopped. Superb story telling.

Directors Notes

Henrik Ibsen (1838 – 1906) counts among the world’s greatest dramatists. His work spans poetic fantasy (PEER GYNT), historical drama (THE VIKINGS AT HELGELAND), comedy (THE LEAGUE OF YOUTH and explorations of human psychology laced with symbolism (WHEN WE DEAD AWAKE). But the works for which he is best known are the great social plays of his middle years where he exposes the effect of lies, shams and evasions, showing the tragedy and degradation that accompany the forfeiting of integrity.
The plays may be set in nineteenth century Norway, but the themes are universal and are extraordinarily relevant to our own society.

AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE was written in 1882. It contains Ibsen’s most outspoken criticism of society’s readiness to attack anyone who puts forward unpalatable truths. For Ibsen had himself been under violent attack because of his previous play, GHOSTS (published in 1881) in which hereditary syphilis is used to symbolise the way in which the unthinking actions of parents determine the lives of their children. Fuelled by indignation, Ibsen struck back at his critics with AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE, based on a true incident at a Hungarian health spa where the town medical officer warned of the danger of cholera, destroyed the tourist trade and was expelled from the town for his pains. But Ibsen was too great a dramatist for the play to be a personal expression of pique. Though written over 100 years ago, AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE covers a wide range of issues that are burningly topical today; the purity of the water supply, pollution by industry, the role of the press, the role of government, the individual and society, absolute moral values versus pragmatism.

The Arthur Miller adaptation of AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE was made in 1950. The theme of the democratic right to tell the truth in the face of mass hysteria had great relevance in the days of McCarthyism. But existing translations were stilt- ed and failed to represent the immediacy and vigour of the play. Working from a word for word literal translation, Miller created a colloquial (and somewhat shortened) version which serves Ibsen well.