An Enemy of the People
Opening Night: March 18, 2024
Theater: Circle in the Square
Website: anenemyofthepeopleplay.com
A small-town doctor considers himself a proud, upstanding member of his close-knit community. When he discovers a catastrophe that risks the lives of everyone in town, he raises the alarm. But he is shaken to his core when those in power, including his own brother, not only try to silence him—they try to destroy him.
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March 18, 2024
It’s too weak to say that this conspiracy of inaction makes “An Enemy of the People” relevant; its issues and ours are not similar but identical. And not just its issues. Its characters, too, are contemporary: doppelgängers of our own vicious demagogues, cowed editors, greasy both-sides-ists and defanged idealists.
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March 19, 2024
Strong is a standout amid an evening of largely blasé and unbalanced performances. There’s an overall atmosphere of tepidness in what Ibsen demanded be a ferocious work of theater.
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March 18, 2024
But Herzog and Gold have cleared away any fustiness (which really lies not in Ibsen but in us) and have drawn out Enemy’s inherent muscularity.
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March 18, 2024
I have seen productions that laid out the counterarguments and personality conflicts more compellingly, but none that focused so intently and mournfully on the underlying issue of contamination, both of the environment and of public discourse. This version of the play is a plea to the audience.
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March 18, 2024
But have no doubt: Audiences on any every night of this limited 16-week run at Circle in the Square will witness a taut and exactingly directed production. Sam Gold’s An Enemy Of The People is one of the best play revivals of the current season to date, right up there with Purlie Victorious, besting Doubt and even Gold’s own, shakier Macbeth starring Daniel Craig in 2022.
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March 18, 2024
Strong seemed to remain in character, even asking for the protesters to be allowed to speak as Imperioli and others, also in character, helped kick them out. The tension in his sulky disposition at that moment – half commitment, half actual anguish – proved to be the most incendiary comment on performativity, idealism, and action of the night.
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March 18, 2024
This production has much to recommend it, and Strong in particular should return to the stage as often as he can. But it’s hard not to feel as though this “Enemy of the People,” in which as rootable as possible a hero is ground down by the forces of evil, ended up presenting an opportunity for the audience to put themselves on trial, and then, with a sigh of relief, exonerate themselves.
READ THE REVIEWMarch 18, 2024
First staged over 140 years ago, Ibsen’s play feels eerily prescient when performed here and now on Broadway, in an era where truth is constantly discarded for “alternative facts” and more conveniently advantageous narratives. In the hands of writer Amy Herzog, director Sam Gold, and a committed cast, it also is a striking portrait of oppositional forces both strategically manipulative and stunningly violent.
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March 18, 2024
Avoiding the play’s pitfalls, Imperioli and the rest of the cast refrain from going overboard with shouts and violent lunges. They force the audience to listen closely to their arguments rather than cause us to quickly tone out the angriest voices.
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March 18, 2024
I wish I had been there (alas, I attended the following night), as it would have been an exciting addition to this uneven production of a timely work.
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March 18, 2024
They are nigh perfect to play the opposing Stockmann brothers in Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, now being given a zippy revival adapted by playwright Amy Herzog and directed by her husband, Sam Gold.
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March 18, 2024
It’s far from the first time Ibsen — and this work in particular — has been dragged into the present, but it’s urgent and effective. Ultimately one of the key strengths of this bracing revival is that it presents a classic drama as a play for our time.
READ THE REVIEWMarch 18, 2024
As Dr. Thomas Stockmann, the much-antagonized protagonist of Henrik Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People,” and perhaps the first theatrical whistleblower, Jeremy Strong gives a performance of sustained, contained intensity that keeps this intimate, refreshing revival continually absorbing.
READ THE REVIEWMarch 18, 2024
And Strong grabs that sudden intimate connection like a man holding on to bucking steer, falling ever deeper into his character’s abyss. It is a sight to see. Strong is one of the great American actors of his generation. And Imperioli is no slouch either. He’s as live and present as anyone could ask.
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March 18, 2024
Best of all is Jeremy Strong’s Dr. Thomas Stockmann, who vividly recalls Dr. Anthony Fauci, especially when this good Norwegian doctor is warning a town about the dangers of an impending epidemic. The only problem with making “Enemy” a blow-by-blow retelling of Trump and Fauci’s battles is that what we all endured in real life a few years ago was so much more dramatic than what’s being offered onstage under the direction of Sam Gold.
READ THE REVIEWMarch 18, 2024
This production of An Enemy of the People may be driven by star power, but its enduring message packs a punch for seasoned theatregoers and those new to Ibsen’s works. And audiences will be talking about the bar on stage for years to come.
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