Review: A Timely “Enemy”

Review: An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen. Adapted by Amy Herzog. Directed by Victor Pappas. Scenic Design by Matthew Smucker. Costume Design by Cathy Hunt. Lighting Design by Connie Yun. Sound Design by Dominic Codykramers. Music composed by Robertson Witmer. With Shawn Belyea, Aaron Blakely, Bradford Farwell, Nehemiah Hooks, Josh Kenji Langager, Alanah Pascual, Robert Shampain, Ricky Spaulding. Onstage at Union Arts Center from September 20 to October 5, 2025. Tickets at https://www.unionartscenter.org/an-enemy-of-the-people/

Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen is still on The Hot List…despite being dead for a hundred+ years. A Doll’s House, Ghosts, Hedda Gabler are all still being produced on stages globally…Hedda even has a new film version debuting this year. And, then there’s the oh so timely AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE. Also frequently produced and adapted including a well received new version by playwright Amy Herzog which was on Broadway last year and which now debuts at Union Arts Center (aka the recently merged ACT and Seattle Shakespeare) for a brief run. Directed by veteran Seattle director Victor Pappas with a cast of talented local actors, it’s a very timely return to a play all about communities at war with themselves.

Enemy is a play about a town divided. And, a play about hypocrisy. It’s about pride. And, arrogance. Also: corruption. Stupidity. Greed. Governments and officials failing to protect the public. The public being swayed by false rhetoric. Mob violence. Deliberate ignorance.

It alls sounds so familiar, doesn’t it?

To be more plot specific, An Enemy of the People is a play about two brothers, one with more power than the other. The older conservative more powerful brother is the Mayor of a not very big town and he hires his youger, idealistic doctor brother to become the health director of a new spa the town has invested in and built to help grow the economy. The younger brother, Dr. Thomas Stockmann has concerns about the water supply for the spa and sends water samples off to be tested and it’s revealed that the water is dangerously contaminated. (To make matters even worse, the doctor’s father-in-law owns one of the tanneries causing the pollution.)

Foolishly, the idealistic young doctor assumes that his brother, Peter Stockmann and the town leaders will want to close down the spa while they make the very expensive repairs to correct the water pollution problem. As the doctor is the one of the pillars of the “leftier” side of the community he also assumes other more liberal community members will aid him in this cause. Very quickly, the mayor and the Powers That Be make it clear they will NOT close the spa/begin making those expensive repairs and the doctor’s so called liberal friends aren’t as supportive as he had hoped. Soon, the town turns against the doctor and declare him to be..yes, AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!!! And, then beat him up and trash his house. Then, at his lowest point, he makes the decision to…stay in town, tough it out and wait for the people to change their mind. The End.

(Yes, I just spoilered the whole play but…it’s about 150 years old. You should know it by now…)

ACT/Union’s production of Amy Herzog’s adaptation is, for the most part, very well done. Handsomely designed by Matthew Smucker (sets) and Cathy Hunt (costumes), it all looks very good. Amy Herzog’s adaptation doesn’t update the setting of the play; we’re still in some vague late 19th century time frame, but the language has been freshened; it manages to feel revelant and relatable while still being period appropriate. She’s also trimmed down the play a bit to move faster and even eliminated some characters, with the main cut being the doctor’s wife; here, she’s died before the play has started with the result that the daughter, Petra is now the only female character with a speaking role.

To be honest, I’ve never seen a production of An Enemy of the People prior to this or even read the original play (hangs head in theatrical shame) so I really can’t compare the original to Herzog but I will point out one issue with the structure of the play that bothered me. The first scene features Dr. Stockmann at home with Petra and all their like minded friends including the town’s young newspaper publisher Hovstad and his young editor, Billing who are both enamored of Petra and both eager to take on the Establishment. The entire play takes place over a very short period of time (two days or so) and by the end of the third scene in the play which takes place the day after the first scene, both Hovstad and Billing have BECOME part of the Establishment and turn against Dr. Stockmann after not much coercion by Mayor Stockmann. It feels a bit rushed and contrived that they turn so quickly.

The ending seems unlikely as well…Dr. Stockmann and Petra decide to stay in Helltown despite the fact they’ve been physically attacked and are now jobless. I mean, I’m all for standing up to bullshit but sometime’s you also need to escape the bullshit and let those left behind wallow around in it until they figure out: “Oh, shit….we’re wallowing around in shit that we’re responsible for!” Except they usually don’t take any responsibility for being part of the problem.

Victor Pappas does a fine job of staging within the confines of the Allen Theater and its “theater in the round” design which I’ve kvetched about for years (in the round means at some point you’re not going to see/hear part of the show…)

The cast is strongly headed by Aaron Blakely as Dr. Thomas Stockmann. He nicely underplays the role and manages to show that Thomas is genuinely idealistic and well intentioned but he’s also sometimes a bit smug about it not to mention naive. He contrasts nicely with Bradford Farwell’s Mayor Pete, who is…well, he’s a Bad Guy. The classic villain along the lines of Scrooge, Mr. Potter and Mr. Burns. It’s fun watching Mr. Farwell, twirl that invisible mustache!

Also giving a big performance: Shawn Belyea as Morten Kiil, Dr. Stockmann’s father-in-law, a blue collar tanner who’s made good. He bristles at the suggestion his tannery is responsible for the water pollution and he’s not afraid to get all MAGA-y when confronted. Belyea is deliciously nasty in his portrayal.

I also very much enjoyed Robert Shampain as the “Voice of the Middle”, the town printer and the king of caution and wishy washiness who blows in the wind more frequently than the Democratic National Committee. It’s a perfectly tuned performance and probably my favorite in this production. If anyone ever does a play about doormat Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Mr. Shampain could play that role in his sleep!

The younger actors were strong; I especially enjoyed Josh Kenji Langager’s Billing; he brought a cheeky charm to what is a rather small, under written role. And, Alanah Pascual was fine as Petra though the age gap between her and Aaron Blakely as her father was fuzzy. Due to the role of the mother being cut, it frequently seemed like Petra and Thomas were married and not parent/child. It felt awkward at times but that’s also a theme of Ibsen’s…family awkwardness.

I can’t say I really “enjoyed” An Enemy of the People…but, good theater isn’t always “fun”…sometimes it is challenging and thought provoking and difficult. The themes of Ibsen’s work are so timely; we’re seeing the plot of An Enemy of the People happening right now in America on a day to day basis. It makes for a night of theater that can be stressful and triggering. It’s maybe not a great show for people wanting to unwind from the unsettling Nazi-fication of our country but perhaps it’s still a show to see to remind us that we have to resist and continue to fight for whatever freedom we have left, even if it means being stressed and forced to deal with it head on.