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Jeremy Strong stood at a bar counter, a self-righteous, rebellious stance not unknown to “Succession” scion Kendall Roy, whose notoriety has helped turn Henrik Ibsen’s somewhat stiff 1882 morality tale into a ticket hot on Broadway. Strong’s character, Dr. Thomas Stockmann, was about to earn the title moniker, using a town hall-style meeting to condemn the soon-to-open local bathrooms for spewing poisoned water.
Cue climate activists: affiliated with a group known as extinction rebellion, they drew an explicit connection between the drama of a small Norwegian town and an urgent global crisis, shouting “the oceans are rising and they will swallow this city” and “there is no theater on a dead planet!” Some actors howled back into character as staff rushed to end the interruption. watch the videos and you’ll see that almost no one in the audience, including me, seemed surprised.
This is because Amy Herzog’s new version of the text, and this circular staging by her husband Sam Gold, already aimed to blur the distinctions between past and present. (Customers had just been invited on stage for free shots of Linie Aquavit, during a brief intermission that seemed sponsored by Norway.)
The bold themes of Ibsen’s parable (the delicacy of truth in the face of mob mentality, the spread of misinformation by the press, the valuing of money at the expense of nature) hardly need updating.
But Herzog, who adapted last season’s acclaimed revival of “A Doll’s House,” also recasts Ibsen’s story in a streamlined, contemporary vernacular. In crisp, straightforward dialogue, the action runs just under two hours, with some characters eliminated (Thomas is now a widower) and others reinforced, notably his daughter Petra (an attractive Victoria Pedretti), whose warmth and integrity Give him some encouragement to the process.
There is only a modest level of passion in Petra’s brief courtship by newspaper editor Hovstad (a solid Caleb Eberhardt), who goes from her father’s strongest ally to his most outspoken enemy, refusing to publish Thomas’s study of water pollution once becomes its most open enemy. Of course, the news could lead to financial ruin for the city.
But the production’s disconcerting lack of fire (despite Isabella Byrd’s beautiful lantern lighting design) originates with the good doctor himself. Strong carries Thomas’ convictions like a loose hand in a briefcase, maintaining a placid composure even when he makes a deadly discovery and is then struck by betrayals in trying to expose it. Famous for its extreme sports performance approachStrong seems alive in every moment onstage, but not fully invested in its consequences, even when the latter leave him curled up on the floor.
The gears of Ibsen’s logic turn at a modest pace: how could Thomas not immediately understand that solving the water problem would be costly? – allowing the audience to move forward and see the characters catch up. Dramatizing the belated epiphanies of a supposedly brilliant man is difficult, and Strong takes a low-key approach. The same goes for his indignant speech calling his enemies an ignorant and complacent horde. After the fiery shouts of the actual protesters, Strong’s expression seemed even more dull.
Pairing Strong alongside Michael Imperioli, making his Broadway debut as Peter, Thomas’s brother and the mayor leading the charge against him, gives the revival some cable drama cachet. But the intensity of “The White Lotus” star’s bottled storm cloud spreads across the stage, and the tense brotherhood between the rival brothers is only intermittently believable.
Gold’s attention to texture and tactile details asks the audience to lean in; The play’s opening scenes foster a fascinating intimacy that was later shattered by civic controversy. From the delicate border of Petra’s wool shawl (costumes by David Zinn) to the Rosemaling patterns painted on the white set (by design collective Dots), the production creates a seductive and compelling world in the realm of senses. But it took a surprising ambush for the moral of the story to hit home.
An enemy of the people, through June 16 at the Circle in the Square Theater in New York. 2 hours. anenemyofthepeopleplay.com.