Enemy Of The People (Park Avenue Armory) NYC Reviews and Tickets
About the Show
Production Covid-19 Safety ProtocolsShow-Score Member Reviews (22)
See it if It was brilliantly staged given that we were socially distanced and wore masks, With ear phones every word came through clearly.
Don't see it if you are not fond of one person plays or wearing ear phones
See it if You want to see exceptional acting where you can hear and understand every word in a covid safe gigantic space.
Don't see it if You dislike one woman shows
See it if You are interested in an updated and timely version of an Ibsen classic
Don't see it if You don't like changing what has been the usual or participating in the storyline.
See it if You like excellent storytelling with an element of audience participation that is exciting, but doesn't single you out.
Don't see it if You want to see a traditional play or musical on a stage. Read more
See it if Ann Dowd entertains Park Avenue Armory, a huge venue for anyone, with ease and effortlessness. And she is helluva actress.
Don't see it if If you don't like wearing headphones and/or like to participate during a production....by voting, in this case.
See it if Impressive setting for this 1-person, superbly acted show. Fun absorbing story. Great adaptation.
Don't see it if You sit at tables of 5 (odd when tickets are sold in pairs). And you briefly discuss and vote on what course the play will take.
See it if You enjoy 1 person shows and enjoy some audience participation. Ann Dowd was excellent and the concept was new, fun and engaging.
Don't see it if You don't want to interact with other audience members. You are seated in tables of 5 and together you have to vote on the story outcomes.
See it if Excellent solo performance by Anne Dowed, nice audience interaction and dialogue with voting.
Don't see it if can be a bit confusing considering it is a one woman show, about many things and people.
Critic Reviews (8)
"That both siblings are played by Dowd is a problem, and a plus. The plus is that Dowd is an endlessly and effortlessly compelling actor, apparently unafraid of any extreme of human depravity...Because Dowd is playing both, and because she is a tiny figure on Hildegard Bechtler’s giant catwalk of a stage as it branches out amid the tables, she must push both characterizations to extremes."
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"The gamified gimmick doesn’t quite make up for all that’s been stripped away, though it does offer the theatergoing set a chilling view of itself...Yet while Icke’s text disappointed me on two fronts (aesthetic and, though it makes me a pearl-clutcher, moral), I was still dazzled by his use of technologically complex mise-en-scène."
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"In essence, she’s shouting in dead space to a room of muffled ears. We hear her words, we see her image on large video screens, but her live presence is diluted through technology...If anything, the 'Our Town' via 'American Idol' shtick leaches energy and tension from the story. We slide off our headphones, confer laughingly, and vote without much seriousness."
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"It’s an illuminating exercise in both self-reflection and groupthink — and an example of how, as audiences emerge from personal hibernation, theater is seeking novel kinds of visceral engagement."
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"Icke’s modernized elements (including making the protagonist female, emphasizing her character flaws while making her brother more sympathetic, and working in internet rumors, limited healthcare and frustrations with democratic norms) work quite well – so much so that one would like to see him direct the show in a traditional theater with a full cast and without alienating video and audio effects and gimmicky audience participation."
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"While his script is a little bit too novelistic (a downside of many solo experiences), and the material a little too expansive to be conveyed by one fearless performer, I had a great time watching the moral gray areas play out in the hands of the wealthy Upper East Siders who cheered for the supermarket workers every night until they were able to flee to Sag Harbor...Unfortunately, the deck is so stacked against Dowd that 'Enemy of the People' is a losing battle for her from start to finish."
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"The net effect is ultimately more gimmicky than thought-provoking. The play supposedly moves in different directions depending on how we vote, but we have to take the creators’ word for it since we only see one version...As with so many theater pieces developed during the pandemic, 'Enemy of the People' is more memorable as an experience than drama."
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That the audience members had to spend time debating choices makes this “Enemy of the People” the exact right show for this moment. This is not because we as Americans are facing some critical choices ourselves, although we are, but because, as the city and its theaters reopen, it offers an excuse and an opportunity for people who might not have seen each other for more than a year to get together in person and actually talk.
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