An Enemy of the People

Aquila Theatre

Bermuda Festival

20th February 2010

Aquila Theatre's presentation of Henrik Ibsen's timeless classic 'An Enemy of the People' was nothing short of a triumph.

This was the second of two successful productions mounted by the touring company as part of the Bermuda Festival 2010.

Set at an absorbing pace from the outset with an engaging delivery, the production maintained a clean and contemporary edge which highlighted brilliantly the play's perpetual relevance.

Tightly and dynamically directed by Aquila's founder and artistic director, Peter Meineck, the cast of just seven presented a group of comprehensively and utterly convincing characters.

Line delivery was without exception crystal clear.

The weight of import in each speech in this artfully constructed piece was never lost. The presentation rapidly and masterfully drew in an expectant audience and did not disappoint.

In essence, the Norwegian playwright's 'An Enemy of the People' explores a controversial, even uncomfortable universal truth and has been the inspiration behind numerous timeless classics since.

Steven Spielberg tackled the concept in 'Jaws' (1975) and Steven Soderbergh in 'Erin Brockovich' (2000) to name but two.

But in this play of 1882, Ibsen was the first to explore on stage the idea of one single brave individual's struggle to do the right thing and speak the truth in the face of extreme social intolerance.

He sets the piece in a small Norwegian spa town where his protagonist, Thomas Stockmann, a trusted physician, uncovers a disturbing truth.

The spa, which serves as a major source of local income, is toxic.

His desperate attempt to convince his brother, the town mayor, and ultimately the entire population, of this life-threatening health scare is met unanimously with derision and vilification.

The stage offers a powerful dimension to social commentary. And here the playwright uses it to the fullest to address the irrational tendencies of the masses and the hypocritical and corrupt nature of the political system they support.

Ahead of its time and risky when first produced, it still has much to say today and, with its ecological dimension, it is remarkable how timely it is right now.

True to life in this masterfully constructed piece, every character presented is authentically multi-faceted and his or her interaction with others depends on the nature of their relationships.

At the centre is Dr. Stockmann, charismatically played by Damian Davis, who is warm and immensely likeable from the moment he first appears and is thus able to retain the audience's favour during moments of almost self-serving obduracy.

Incidents of officialdom are punctuated with intense family interaction, often of a confrontational nature, particularly between the two brothers: Thomas and Peter Stockmann, the town mayor, played with unnerving conviction by James Lavender.

The intense exchanges between the two were electrifying and alarmingly tangible in their intimacy.

Watching them was like a fly-on-the-wall experience as if accidentally overhearing their private heated exchanges. Some challenging and demanding dialogue was handled with aplomb.

Unforgettable too was Dr. Stockmann's charismatic and exhaustive monologue at the town meeting.

Davis delivered this with an immediacy and freshness as if mouthing the words for the first time, grittily determined to fight his corner.

Meineck, ever the inspired director, is deserving of considerable praise for convincingly staging a mass gathering at a town meeting with a cast of just seven.

Some simple, but clever projection of the speakers' images on the back wall added weight and significance to their presence.

Most creative of all was to use the audience as the ultimate prop; that is representing the crowds at the meeting with speeches delivered to this weighty volume of onlookers.

Audience reaction to the piece as a whole was clearly encouraged by this effect and a largely younger crowd present at this production was animated in its response.

This production was staged appropriately in modern dress as it would have been in Ibsen's day. 'An Enemy of the People' was always intended as a contemporary piece.

Clean, simple, functional and Scandinavian in flavour, the production values enhanced the clarity of the work's message. On-stage scene changes were covered simply with a projected image of a spa town, fountain or seaside scene, thus emphasising its context and the environment.

Making its fourth or perhaps fifth appearance at the Bermuda Festival, Aquila Theatre has become something of a perennial. Long may it continue.