An Enemy of the People Questions the Value of the Truth

Something about the Goodman’s production of An Enemy of the People seems as intent on exposing the cost of extreme naiveté as it is to brandish a fallacy.  The fallacy is that the majority is always right.  Adapted from Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 play of the same name, The Goodman successfully shows how relevant Ibsen’s play about the subversion of truth for personal gain still is 130 years later.

Arthur Miller did the same thing.  Taken with Ibsen’s insistence “that he is going to say what he has to say, and that the audience, by God, is going to listen”, Miller was also sympathetic to the plight of a man besieged by an outraged public because he chose to defend what he knew to be true when he presented his version of this cautionary tale in 1950.

The basic story is a moral tragedy.  An altruistic doctor, Thomas Stockmann (Philip Earl Johnson) returns to his hometown to renew his life.  He’s disillusioned about his efforts to help a remote fishing village, his first wife died and now he’s remarried.  His current wife, Catherine (Lanise Antoine Shelley) is expecting their first child together and his daughter from his previous marriage is grown and living agreeably with them.  They’re doing well.

Before he left, he had recommended to his brother Peter (Scott Jaeck) that the community should develop natural springs found within the town’s borders and market their health benefits to tourists.  By the time he returned, business generated by the springs was thriving and the town was prospering well beyond expectations.  Hired by his brother, who was also the town’s mayor, as the spring’s medical advisor, he enjoyed the privileges of respectability that accompanied his assignment and affiliation with people who wield influence.

But several things were slightly off kilter.  The doctor was not a conformist by temperament and held views that weren’t consistent with the conservative norm.  He enjoyed conviviality and the taste of wine; unlike his brother and others in positions of authority.  And he was conscientious.  He wanted to insure the springs were indeed as sage and beneficial as the community claimed.  Privately, he had the waters tested at the university as a precaution.  Several people had become ill after visiting the springs and he wanted to determine whether the water was the cause.

That the test concluded the waters were indeed tainted didn’t surprise him.  What alarmed him was that they were far more toxic than he expected.  The only conscionable thing to do would be to notify the public and fix the problem.  It sounded so simple; but as is often the case, simplicity often becomes complicated when money is involved.

From here the play descends into deceit, betrayal and denouncement.  The truth of the waters’ hazards didn’t change.  What did change is how the public, the majority, would choose to view that truth.  The ramification of revealing it to the outside world carried a high price.  The loss of revenue and the loss of esteem are formidable motivators influencing peoples’ actions.

Many consider the character of Dr. Stockmann to be a surrogate for Ibsen himself; a person whose commitment to what is right and true is the essential component of a person of character.  Neither the fictitious Dr. Stockmann or the playwright could understand why, after being presented with irrefutable fact, anyone would choose to ignore them.  And not only would they ignore them, they would reject them and revile the messenger.  The failure to understand this deadly human flaw may go beyond being naïve.  Faith in the dignity of mankind may blind someone to our capacity to consciously harm ourselves in order to preserve the status quo.

With references like “draining the swamp” when the newspaper editor Hovstad (Aubrey Deeker Hernandez) initially lambasted the corruption of town officials, The Goodman Theatre’s An Enemy of the People planted the play’s language squarely in the political vernacular of today.  Ana Kuzmanic’s striking costumes may have been intended to evoke Victorian Norway, but the words were as American and as contemporary as Chance the rapper’s latest hit.

Philip Earl Johnson as Dr. Stockmann sank deeper and deeper into his role of the defiant defender of truth.  It was difficult not to admire the tenacity of his natural goodness.  Allen Gilmore as Aslaksen the printer and head of the small businessman’s alliance has an uncanny ability to sparkle on stage.  Here he’s like a sober and cautious Napoleon choosing sides based on the impact an event has on the balance sheet.

An Enemy of the People

Through April 15, 2018

Goodman Theatre

170 N. Dearborn St.

Chicago, IL  60601

312-443-3800

www.goodmantheatre.org/