Public Enemy
The Pearl Theatre Co. presents a punchy and raw adaptation of Ibsen’s 'An Enemy of the People' from the playwright behind Broadway’s 'Blackbird,' David Harrower.
... Read moreWhen Dr. Stockmann finds that the town’s tourist-friendly baths contain lethal levels of toxins, he sets out to clear the air and quickly finds his friends and neighbors poisoned against him. Ibsen's iconic parable tackles the collision of truth and politics in the public sphere.
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- 1 hour and 30 minutes
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- The Pearl Theatre Company / Peter Norton Space (Midtown W)
Cast & Creatives (19)
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Reviews (85)
16 Critics' Reviews
"Harrower retitled it 'Public Enemy,' spruced up the translation and shaved the five acts to a 90-minute sprint—which the Pearl Theater is now presenting in a satisfyingly sturdy staging...Hal Brooks’s modern-dress production does well by the story...Mr. Cole fully comes into his own as Stockmann turns his last stand into a grandstand about the 'majority getting what it wants'...In this society, you can be corrupt or you can be a zealot. What bleak options this thought-provoking show offers." Full Review
"Harrower's version, which eliminates some minor characters, streamlines the text, moving so fast that the characters are all but reduced to puppets, striking new attitudes every few minutes...This production is probably good enough to introduce the inexperienced to 'An Enemy of the People,' but we have seen better treatments of this script in recent memory. In the end, it tries too hard to place the action in the modern-day world of official spin, denial, and prevarication." Full Review
The essential issues remain in place but everything has been brought to the level of agitprop melodrama. Whatever its value in reducing the play’s themes to a high-school civics class lesson, Harrower’s adapting the play to a present-day context simply doesn’t work. It’s not credible for Kiil, for example, to be so ignorant of the fact that bacteria can’t be seen by the naked eye and use that as an excuse to dismiss Stockmann’s claims. Full Review
"Harrower’s 90-minute cutbacks are not well done. The 2012 version, though longer, was much clearer and the speech in the Town Hall was riveting. Here it just seemed anti-climatic and almost tongue-in-cheek. Much of this might have to do with Cole’s portrayal or Hal Brooks' direction. Cole's characterization was much more about self than about the righteousness of it all." Full Review
"'Public Enemy' is certainly super timely...Harrower did more than wrestle the five-act play down to a 90-minute single act...He altered Ibsen's text so that Stockmann's targets go beyond the town's politicians to include the whole consumer society and our apathetic selves. Harrower's head-to-toe, slimmed-down text sticks to the essential story...The problem here is that the performances all around are more okay than outstanding." Full Review
“David Harrower’s new streamlined version of Ibsen’s ‘An Enemy of the People’ retitled ‘Public Enemy’ is rousingly taut and tense. Performed in modern dress, the Ibsen original has been updated in language so that it has a believably modern feel. While Ibsen’s 1882 drama dealt with ecology and economics, Harrower’s version is much more pointedly political. Hal Brooks’ exciting intermission-less production makes this a timely drama in the current election season.” Full Review
"An appreciative but occasionally uneven mounting...Harrower’s adaptation cuts away at the vintage verbiage of the original script, and Brooks’ well-paced staging has the show clocking in at about 90 minutes with no intermission. At the same time, though, this tighter writing seems to reveal somewhat uncomfortably the schematics of Ibsen’s plotting, and a mixed bag of performances among the 11-person cast sometimes lends the proceedings the flavor of old-fashioned melodrama." Full Review
"Eerily timely and shatteringly relevant, it is a must-see for the establishment. It deals with truth and the price truth-tellers pay, a concern throughout recorded history...The cast of 'Public Enemy' is superb, as we’ve come to expect from The Pearl, and Hal Brooks’ direction is spot-on. Jimonn Cole gives a heroic performance as Dr. Stockmann, one every acting aficionado will want to see." Full Review
"That the play does not dissolve into simply a fable of generalities is a tribute to both Ibsen and Harrower...Potent questions are posed. Can one live a life without compromise? Do hypocrisy and deceit rule the world? These questions appear to be universal and ongoing...Under Hal Brooks’s attentive direction the actors perform well, with Nilaja Sun, John Keating, and Arielle Goldman being standouts." Full Review
"Harrower has fashioned a taut 90-minute intermission-less version of Ibsen’s Norwegian original...The acting in this production is disappointing—lackluster and a bit stilted. Brooks has attempted to add some excitement to key scenes by adding ominous music cues and/or bathing the stage in red light. But it’s the unnerving complexity of Ibsen’s and Harrower’s writing that dominates the proceedings and makes the show worth seeing, not the performances or the stage trappings." Full Review
"David Harrower has revised Ibsen’s text and given us a short, punchy ninety-minute version, now in an engrossing production...Hal Brooks’ direction brings up the houselights and has Stockmann accuse the audience, turning the play into a faux political rally. It strikes me that Harrower has streamlined the play but not dramatized it...The interpretation careens from noble whistleblower to egotistical demagogue, leaving me wondering if there’s anybody worth rooting for." Full Review
"More essential than ever...In the beginning, 'Public Enemy' seems to present itself as a clear-cut morality play...It gets interesting when it reveals its true colors as a play that does not directly deal in the dull, predictability of moral and political absolutes but instead in the contradictions inherent in any matters attached to human ego...The actors hit their stride and present the most interesting performances as their characters start to reveal their aims, interests, and initiatives." Full Review
"An eloquent tale of justice and ambition…Director Hal Brooks has confirmed the company’s commitment to showcasing incisive, relevant classical theater with Harrower’s masterly take...There is an unending tension between the authority and the reformist in Brooks’s conception. Within this tension is a complexity difficult to explore on stage: the variable nature of truth…A precise, magnetic production of Ibsen’s timely play." Full Review
"The Pearl could not have picked a better time to give us 'Public Enemy'...Although this is an adaptation, it isn’t far from what’s written in 'An Enemy of the People.' Trump-mania is not specific to this year...Keating as Aslasken is a cheeky scene stealer. I was laughing hysterically every time this quirky character crept onstage...A majority of 'Public Enemy,' however, doesn’t live up to its climax...Unfortunately, the transitions are sometimes the most interesting thing happening onstage." Full Review
"The center of the play remains as strong and elementally compelling as ever. This Stockmann, though, played by Jimonn Cole, strikes an outraged tone quite soon, truncating the scope of psychological development possible. A kind of unfortunate emotional monotony sets in...For those who don’t know 'An Enemy of the People,' 'Public Enemy' is well worth seeing, even while Harrower’s modernization prunes from the original some tension and finesse." Full Review
"There is a pulsing heart at the center of Hal Brooks' production of 'Public Enemy' in the role of Dr. Theo Stockman as embodied by the wonderful Jimonn Cole in a performance that is impassioned, thoughtful, raw, appropriately livid and ultimately very compelling in an otherwise straightforward and occasional murky production...The production captures the essence of an Ibsen play, the rage, the conscious, the soul of theatre telling us we must listen." Full Review
69 Members' Reviews
See it if a story about political cover ups on environmental issues.
Don't see it if you believe there is no corruption in politics.
See it if serious, thought-provoking dramas float your boat. Never really fades, so you're good to go on the steady, flowing dialogue. So-so acting.
Don't see it if you need a lot to keep you interested & awake. This is NOT a show to see alone. Must have conversation, dissection & digestion afterwards.
See it if you want your drama pristine and unemotional. Spoken beautifully, but a bit too polarized. Deliberately aseptic stage, costumes.
Don't see it if You want some meat in there. You want color in your set, information in costumes or emotional shading in cast.
See it if You like feeling morally superior.
Don't see it if You're expecting Ibsen.
See it if Harrower's blistering adaptation of Ibsen's play on small town corruption leaves subtlety at the door but still effective; very well staged
Don't see it if Tired of histrionic politics (real & dramatic); acting is a tad stilted esp Dr.Stockmann who becomes a belligerent mouthpiece for the author
See it if you are interested in politics and goverment, and enjoy different and revolutionary points of view on the matter.
Don't see it if critical views of democracy offend you or you would not enjoy emotional political speeches which break the fourth wall.
See it if You like venerable classic plays truncated and butchered. Though relevant to our current times it would resonate if it were less simplistic
Don't see it if You think the woes of the 19th century are irrelevant to current times. Ibsen's play, although polemical, deserves to be seen as written.
See it if You want to hear about an issue that is relevant. You want to see powerful acting. You want to see someone who is passionate about a cause
Don't see it if You want light and fluffy. You don't want to hear about people in office hiding the truth about contaminants in the water.
See it if you want a primer for Ibsen's deeper, smarter, more even-handed polemic, An Enemy of the People, upon which this was based.
Don't see it if in this hot political campaign season you want to escape more agitprop & unsubtle messages about the corruption of the press & politicians.
See it if you'd like a modern adaptation that condenses the action without sacrificing the spirit with a great performance from the lead actor.
Don't see it if you like your Ibsen traditional, are not a fan of speed plotting that combines actions in a whirlwind, don't like its modern resonances
See it if you like Ibsen, An Enemy of the People, political plays, thoughtful and timely material that feels very relevant.
Don't see it if You're in the mood for something light and fluffy, or a musical. This is a play with some humor, but it's mostly serious.
See it if you enjoy good acting and good directing
Don't see it if you dislike dated plays whose theme has been over-sone.
See it if you think the original is talky and undramatic, this witty update is vivid and stimulating. A revelatory central performance.
Don't see it if You want mindless entertainment. Otherwise, any serious theatergoer shouldn't miss it.
See it if It's probably bad timing. Have watched 3 pointless debates for the presidency; watching another character pontificating was too much for me
Don't see it if you've seen the presidential debates. It's more of the same.
Also I saw the Manhattan Theatre Club production of An Enemy of the People ... Read more Read less
See it if are an ibsen fan and will find this 90 minutes of fast paced drama so riveting.
Don't see it if not into political drama or great dialogue.
See it if you want to see the basic premise of the original play acted out with connections drawn to our current culture and politics.
Don't see it if you have high expectations about seeing an Ibsen play based on the original theme
Also I applaud the efforts to bring attention to the issues associated with... Read more Read less
See it if You have the patience to watch a guy rant and rave about the stupidity of the majority and the cowardice of politicians.
Don't see it if You want to see Ibsen done well. This is essentially an Internet comment thread presented on stage.
See it if All Henrik Ibsen fans & those who like stories of idealism, morality/ethics ,& societal issues and right vs wrong. Resonates with today.
Don't see it if Not for those who seek frivolous light entertainment.
See it if You want to see a thoughtful work that is as relevant today as when it was written. Brilliant 90 minute adaptation of Ibsen's long original.
Don't see it if You just like comedies and musicals and don't like serious plays that make you think.
See it if you like being hit over the head with a sledge hammer! No subtlety here. No nuance of character. Everyone is a "symbol"
Don't see it if you want to do your own thinking and responding to ideas and characterizations. Sophomoric and obvious, important ideas are lost in tirade
See it if Excellent translation and brilliantly acted . absorbing drama relating to today's political climate. A must see.
Don't see it if If you only enjoy light musicals.
See it if An attractive, sleek and contemporary Ibsen update is of interest, its progressive casting and political immediacy ironically almost too PC
Don't see it if You prefer your Ibsen straight, with more traditional casting, making less sporadic philosophical points.
Also A capable cast, a clean if clumsy Scandinavian-styled set and a quickl... Read more Read less
See it if you are a political junkie & love seeing how some things never change. Parts of this new translation, set in modern times, were fascinatin
Don't see it if you want a well directed, coherent, believable production of this marvelous play.
Also They did a great job of making this relevant for today, and the main c... Read more Read less
See it if You would like to experience how the Greek public felt when they voted to put Socrates to death. You enjoy long philosophical arguments.
Don't see it if You want more developed characters, more humor, and more nuance and depth rather than having the same point repeated many times.