Review: AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE RESONATES WITH CONTEMPORARY RELEVANCE

In its new, streamlined adaptation by Amy Herzog, Henrik Ibsen’s AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE, written in 1891, speaks to a contemporary audience with searing relevance. The trim, intense production, presented by Portland Theater Festival, playing at the Crewe Center for the Arts, hits home with its complex nuances, its irony, and its scathing examination of the meaning and morality surrounding the search for truth. 

Ibsen examines the effects on a small Norwegian 19th century spa town, when the local doctor discovers the waters are contaminated and determines to set things right by telling the truth and remedying the problem., despite the opposition of his brother the mayor.  Slowly, insidiously, violently, his friends and most of the locals turn against Dr. Stockmann as they realize then truth will have devastating economic and personal consequences for them. In the face of ostracism and social and inancial ruin, Thomas Stockmann finds the inner strength of his convictions to adhere to the truth and refuse to compromise his integrity.

Playwright Amy Herzog’s adaptation is fluid and easy on modern ears, without changing the substance of Ibsen’s brilliant dialogue; she consolidates characters, omitting Katrine Stockmann -deceased in this version – and giving her daughter Petra a larger, more outspoken role, and changing Stockmann’s father-in-law, Morten Kiil, into his mother-in-law, thereby giving women a larger voice in the play. Director Kelly O’Donnell keeps the pace taut, makes some interesting choices, especially in the town meeting scene with its brutal finish, and in the vibrant use of the thrust stage.

Mounted in thrust with the audience on three sides, the simple unit set by Forest Entsminger with its blonde, unvarnished wooden backdrop and sturdy furniture, that can be easily configured into the three locations of the play, adds to the fluidity of the staging. Seifallah Salotto Cristobal’s enhances the visual effect with his lighting and projections, and Emily Duncan Wilson’s sound design is a subtle underscoring of music and sound effects to set the mood. Izzy McClelland designs the costumes which are largely contemporary garments made to suggest period garb. Molly Wagner anchors the production as Stage Manager.

The eight-person ensemble is uniformly strong, led by an incandescent Dustin Tucker in the demanding role of Dr. Thomas Stockmann.  As his brother and adversary, Mayor Peter Stockmann, Tom Ford delivers a note-perfect performance of a wily politician, manipulating everyone and everything around him – including the facts. He is at once smooth and sly, ruthless and seemingly prudent. One can understand his appeal to the townsfolk, at the same time as one instinctively recoils from someone who is so self-serving at his core.

Jake Cote is a convincing Hovstad, the newspaper editor who allows his convictions to be subsumed by his economic concerns.  Less black and white in his motivations than the Mayor, Cote finds just the right tone of friendship turned to betrayal. George Sopko’s Aslaksen, the union printer, is a fine representation of the working man’s instinct for survival and the status quo. His embrace of expediency rather than truth is all taken in the guise of “moderation.”   Nate Stephenson portrays the young Billing as a casualty of the town’s manipulation of the truth – a follower plunged into the vortex of the struggle. Mason Hawkes portrays the one brave and honest neighbor, Captain Horster, with quiet gentleness.

Kim Gordon gives a cutting performance as Morten Kiil; she is tough, wily, and willing to sacrifice her family for her own self-interest.  Sararose Willey, as Petra, brings a luminous quality to the role of the Doctor’s daughter – devoted, harassed, struggling to remain independent in her life and thoughts, and selflessly devoted to her father and their shared vision of truth.

As Dr. Thomas Stockmann, the protagonist around whom the controversy swirls, Dustin Tucker delivers a tour de force performance. The part allows Tucker to explore his skills as a classical  dramatic actor    His portrayal of Stockmann is monumental - heart-wrenching but also  warm, funny, and endearing; he avoids the pitfall of making the doctor a staid, didactic proponent of what he sees as his truth. Instead, Tucker limns an arc from a convivial, kind man who wants to entertain his friends, who is idealistic about human nature, and who painfully comes to realize the murkiness of the motivations of many of the townsfolk. When that realization hits him like a lightning bolt in the town meeting,  he transforms into a warrior for the truth, using his intellect and his passion to decry the perfidy of the town officials. Beaten, both literally and figuratively, in the final scene, Tucker’s Dr. Stockmann is not ready to capitulate; instead,  with Petra and his friend Captain Horster at his side, he determines to stay true to his beliefs and to continue his work as best he can. Tucker‘s towering performance is quite simply breathtaking. His histrionic  range and delivery of the text and his commitment to the character are compelling.

Portland Theater Festival’s AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE  is theatre for the soul. It is the perfect play for the present, moment as we, in Americans, deal with fake news, feckless leaders, and gross distortions of science and moral truth, Ibsen shows us that human nature has always been subject to self -nterest and expediency. But we also celebrate the unquenchable power of a few brave spokespersons who refuse to be silenced.

I

Photos courtesy PTF

AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE runs from August 20 to September 6, 2026, at Arts Lab in the Crewe Center for the Arts, Portland, Maine. www.porttix.com.  207-842-80

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