Jeremy Strong stood at the bartop, his smug rebel attitude foreign to Succession heir Kendall Roy. Roy's notoriety helped make Henrik Ibsen's somewhat hard-nosed 1882 morality tale a hot ticket on Broadway. Strong's character, Dr. Thomas Stockmann, attempts to earn the title by using a town hall-style meeting to denounce a soon-to-open local bathhouse for spewing poisonous water.
A call to climate change activists: They were part of a group known as Extinction Rebellion, who drew a clear connection between the drama of a small Norwegian town and the looming global crisis, saying, “As the seas rise, “There is no theater on earth,” he shouted. It's a dead planet! '' Several actors roared back into their roles as staff scrambled to stop the interruption. watch video And it turns out that very few people in the audience were surprised, including me.
That's because Amy Herzog's new version of the text and her husband Sam Gold's direction this round were already aiming to blur the distinction between past and present. (During a short intermission, like Sponcon in Norway, patrons had just been invited onto the stage for free shots of Linje Aquavit.)
The bold themes of Ibsen's fables—the psychology of crowds, the spread of misinformation by the press, the delicacy of truth in the face of the prized possession of money at the expense of nature—need little updating.
But Herzog, who adapted last season's acclaimed revival of “A Doll's House,” reinterprets Ibsen's story in rational, modern terms. With crisp, plain dialogue, the action picks up in just under two hours, some characters are removed (Thomas is now a widow), others are strengthened, and the most notable What should be done is the warmth and sincerity of his daughter Petra (a charming Victoria Pedretti). Please lend a little effort to the proceedings.
There is only a modest level of passion in the brief courtship of Petra by newspaper editor Hovstad (a solid Caleb Eberhardt). He goes from being his father's strongest ally to his most outspoken enemy, refusing to publish Thomas's water pollution research once it is revealed. It is clear that this news could lead to financial ruin for the town.
But the production's puzzling lack of fire (despite Isabella Bird's beautiful, lantern-heavy lighting design) comes from the good doctor himself. Strong takes over Thomas' faith in his briefcase, makes a fatal discovery, and remains calm even as he faces the betrayal of trying to uncover it. Strong, known for his extreme sports acting approach, appears to live every moment on stage, but isn't entirely involved in the outcome — even though the latter left him curled up on the floor. Even when you leave it.
The wheels of Ibsen's logic turn at a slow pace, but why doesn't Thomas quickly realize that solving the water problem is expensive? — allows viewers to jump ahead and watch the characters catch up. It's difficult to dramatize a supposedly brilliant man's belated epiphany, but Strong takes a low-key approach. So is his indignant speech in which he called his haters an ignorant and complacent bunch. After the fiery cries of real protesters, Strong's speech seemed even more subdued.
The pairing of Strong, who plays opposite Michael Imperioli, who made his Broadway debut as Mayor Peter, Thomas's brother who leads the attack on Thomas, gives the revival the prestige of a cable drama. But “The White Lotus” star's bottled-up storm cloud-like intensity spreads thinly on stage, and the rugged brotherhood between the rival brothers is only intermittently believable.
The gold texture and attention to tactile detail invite the viewer to lean in. The play's early scenes fostered an rapturous intimacy that was later broken by civil controversy. From the delicate borders of Petra's wool shawl (costuming by David Zinn) to the rosemarine pattern on the white set (by design collective Dots), the production is captivating and convincing in the realm of the senses. creating the world. But it took an amazing ambush to sway the moral of the story to this moment.
enemy of the people, through June 16 at the Circle at the Square Theater in New York. 2 hours. anemoneofthepeopleplay.com.