AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE. To 27 May.
Tour
AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE
by Henrik Ibsen
Tara Arts Tour to 27 May 2006
Runs 2hr 30min One interval
Review: Timothy Ramsden 30 March at arts depot Finchley
Illuminating cultural transition which should develop depth on tour.
Ibsen had a thorough go at those who had attacked his previous play Ghosts in this drama, where left and right alike receive a lashing for hypocrisy, timidity and generally failing to be Henrik Ibsen. Jatinder Verma sets his production (of an uncredited adaptation) in 1880’s India rather than Norway, providing fascinating parallels.
The Somnath brothers remain a small town Mayor and Medical Officer, like Ibsen’s Stockmanns, but the new spa baths, which will boost the town’s income, become a holy water tank (= well), adding a spiritual dimension to the symbol of the water’s pollution. There are new resonances, as the programme mentions, Gandhi campaigned for water purification.
So it’s fitting the advanced medical officer Tushal Somnath should be associated with Independence and progressive views while his Mayor brother Prem parades around in British-Indian headgear, referring admiringly to the ‘Sahibs’.
But Ibsen’s hero, believing the majority is always wrong and that strength comes from being alone (not quite alone; whatever his utopian projects Tushal assumes his wife Leela will always be there to mend his clothes), can sound dangerously undemocratic. Especially after a century as full of dictators as democracy.
Claudia Mayer’s bare-stage set, backed by five abstract panels and a row of utilitarian, yet bright-coloured chairs, allows this duality scope. At one point, still certain the free press will support him, Tushal faces his enemies and declares this backing; the audience sees his back and is aware of the empty space into which he stretches his arms.
But Tushal can be as theatrically demonstrative as his strutting brother, giving some of his later declarations, standing dead-centre on a chair, a sinister aspect. Were Tushal’s idealism to combine, rather than clashing, with Prem’s practicality it would spell danger to the people.
Panels light up as Tushal realises the true nature of pollution, or flash erratically as the crowd break his windows; the row of brightly-coloured chairs move from order to chaos. These are helpful pointers in Jatinder Verma’s production, which at present is marked more by clarity than depth, something which should develop on tour, adding to this fascinating cultural transition.
Homi Babha/Havildar Hungal: Ian Abbey
Puja/Bhopalu: Sohm Kapila
Dr Tushal Somnath: Robert Mountford
Mrs Lela Somnath/Alok Sen: Sharona Sassoon
Mr Prem Somnath/Mohan: Gordon Warnecke
Director: Jatinder Verma
Designer: Claudia Mayer
Lighting: Jvan Morandi
Sound: Fergus O’Hare
Voice: David Carey
Movement: Jasmine Simhalen
Assistant lighting: Jono Kenyon
2006-04-01 09:30:16