AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE. To 26 April.
London.
AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE
by Henrik Ibsen new version by Rebecca Lenkiewicz from a literal translation by Charlotte Barslund.
Arcola Theatre 27 Arcola Street E8 2DJ To 26 April 2008.
Mon-Sat 8pm
Runs 2hr 10min One interval.
TICKETS: 020 7503 1646.
www.arcolatheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 14 April.
Lively, forceful and clear.
This lithe revival presents Ibsen’s play as starkly modern. Designer Jason Southgate’s settings offer clean lines of Scandinavian wood in the rooms where the action’s set. And there’s the economy of Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s new English version, which is either truer to Ibsen or takes more liberties with his Norwegian than others (I suspect the latter).
Mehmet Ergen’s production uses the Arcola’s spacious intimacy to advantage. Seats wrap around three sides of the stage, and characters seem part of the same world as the audience. Ergen encourages both a sense of directness and the play’s humour. This means less Dr Thomas Stockmann’s rather forced joviality in early scenes than the way the town’s inhabitants betray themselves in words and tone of voice.
Stockmann’s initial conviviality later turns into scornfully proclaimed superiority. Ibsen, having been effectively called an enemy of the people for his previous play Ghosts and been made to change the end of A Doll’s House before that, may well have sympathised with the medical officer who discovers the waters of his spa town are polluted, only to have the news suppressed as he’s pressurised to modify the truth when the facts could cost the town money.
This production shows “great wits are sure to madness near allied”. When the Doctor finds his brother the Mayor, and the town’s liberals turning against him, he moves from scientist to potential demagogue. Greg Hicks, just the actor for proclamation, stands on the furniture to declare Stockmann’s confidence in his genius.
But the ambiguous ending really makes the point. With everyone against him, Stockmann’s mind loses focus as he stares ahead before emerging with a stark statement that he’s great because he’s alone. His wife Catherine (a youthful Alison McKenna) who has tried throughout to keep up with his ways, sits concerned. Even his daughter Petra, whom Fiona O’Shaughnessy gives her own bright-eyed idealism, and who has always been her father’s cheerful supporter, now looks anxious.
Strong work too from Christopher Godwin as Stockmann’s brother, the fixer-Mayor and a neatly comic yet pointed Aslaksen, the moderate majority’s spokesperson for restraint, from Jim Bywater.
Thomas Stockmann: Greg Hicks.
Catherine Stockmann: Alison McKenna.
Petra: Fiona O’Shaughnessy.
Peter Stockmann: Christopher Godwin.
Morten Kiil: Robin Browne.
Hovstad: Daniel Rabin.
Billing: Chris Moran.
Aslaksen: Jim Bywater.
Horster: Sean Campion.
Director: Mehmet Ergen.
Designer: Jason Southgate.
Lighting: Michael Nabarro.
Sound: Adrienne Quartly.
Costume: Lorna Ritchie.
Assistant director: Fiona Morrell.
2008-04-20 11:44:16