Public Enemy

Somehow, using the title Public Enemy rather than the usual Enemy of the People for an adaptation of Ibsen’s 130-year-old play makes a difference to a modern audience. Playwright & adapter David Harrower has moved it forward c.100 years. Designer Miriam Buether has built a bloody great big Norwegian chalet. Director Richard Jones has applied his extraordinary imagination……and there you have it – a bang up-to-date morality play.

A Norwegian coastal town (with its own smart new logo!) has begun to exploit its spa waters and built fancy new baths. Medical Advisor Thomas Stockmann discovers the waters are toxic and potentially lethal and when he has proof he sends his report to the Mayor, his employer and his brother, which sets him on a collision course with him and the community, and eventually with his wife and father.

The campaigning local paper and the leader of local small business support him and he is convinced the community will do so too, but when the full implications and costs are realised they all turn and the cover-up begins. In the fourth act, the audience becomes the community at a public meeting and issues of truth and morality are debated and politicians, the press and even democracy itself come under scrutiny.

Similar issues have become commonplace in recent years (we are confronted daily with the dubious morals of politicians, business, the media….well, just about everyone!) which makes the play contemporary and topical. In its day, it was a response to the reaction to his earlier play Ghosts. Arthur Miller’s 1950’s adaptation took on a new meaning. Here it comes alive again as a fresh play for our times.

The width of the stage is sometimes challenging and it is a little stilted at the outset, but it soon gets into its stride and it packs a lot of punch in just 100 minutes. A very welcome revival and adaptation and another feather in the Young Vic’s feather-covered cap!