Theatre / Reviews
Review: Enemy!, Tobacco Factory Theatres – ‘A fun and fresh reimagining of Ibsen’s classic work’
Bristol School of Acting and The Wardrobe Ensemble continued their collaborative scheme yesterday evening with an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People. Conceived and directed by Tom Brennan, and titled Enemy!, this play is set in a small Norwegian spa town, which threatens to be torn apart by a contamination scandal in the local baths.
This play concerns itself fundamentally with the pursuit of truth in the face of mockery and scorn. By adaptation Ibsen’s classic for the modern age, Brennan cleverly ties in themes of spin and fake-news.
The story centres on a sibling rivalry between local doctor Teresa Stockmann (Edie Nightingale) and Mayor Peter Stockmann (Chris Watt). The history of their rivalry is never fully explored, but essentially Peter covets his sister’s cloudless reputation as the local doctor, an envy not helped by her heroic intervention into a medical emergency early in the play.
The local baths are Peter’s flagship political accomplishment, generating almost all of the town’s revenue through entry fees and surrounding tourism. But whilst Peter has spent his life accruing power, Teresa has garnered truer influence.
The production features a rousing array of town hall debates, ensemble songs and community radio broadcasts.
Nightingale’s performance is a particular highlight, as Dr Stockmann is driven to near-insanity by the so-called Tragedy of the Commons. As the Mayor, Watts’ performance as a craven and power-hungry man verging on paranoia, is similarly excellent.
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The production’s design includes live-projection, as photographs sit beneath water and are filmed live, rippling against the screen behind the stage. This device is used most effectively towards the end of the show, when a dishevelled and disappointed Dr Stockmann films herself in close-up on stage, providing a hallucinatory feel and echoing the play’s themes of media and half-truths.
This is a play about depictions of reality, and about herd mentality. It is at its best when it leans fully into these themes in emboldened and novel ways.
There are moments of wonderful humour, most especially courtesy of Mrs Lund (Erin Hamilton), an apparent hypochondriac permanently badgering the heroic Dr Stockmann with complaints of various vague discomforts. This relationship again contributes to the overarching theme of truth versus representation, and scientific inquiry versus subjective experience. Hamilton’s comic performance is a delight.
Manning the town’s radio station is resident DJ Pria (Pria Rigby-Colclough), a glorious comedic creation who blasts a genre referred to as ‘slut-pop’ and encourages her listeners to let loose.
In sum, Enemy! is a fun and fresh reimagining of Ibsen’s classic work. By centring the sibling dynamic and carefully pacing the collapse into post-truthism, Brennan has found the human thread in this fundamentally philosophical play.
Enemy! is at Tobacco Factory Theatres on July 2-4 at 7.30pm. Tickets are available at tobaccofactorytheatres.com.
Main photo: Bristol School of Acting
Read next:
- Review: Twelfth Night, Tobacco Factory Theatres – ‘Another triumph from the most exciting acting school in Bristol’
- Review: A Fairy Story (Animal Farm), Tobacco Factory Theatres – ‘Exceptional acting lights up this techno remix of the Orwellian fable’
- Review: double bill: Britz/Codetta – ‘Bristol School of Acting is continually producing superb shows’
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