the man who stands alone
by Douglas Messerli
Henrik
Ibsen An Enemy of the People,
translated from the Norwegian by Rebecca Lenkiewicz / L.A. Theatre Works, at
UCLA’s James Bridges Theater, the performance we attended was a matinée on
April 12, 2014
The
actors in this production were all competent stage, television, and film
actors, including Gregory Harrison (as Peter Stockman), Richard Kind (Dr.
Thomas Stockman), Rosalind Ayres (as Stockman’s wife, Catherine), and the
veteran Alan Mandell (Morten Kiil, Catherine’s aged father). But the L.A.
Theatre Works does stage their plays, but rather presents them as radio
broadcasts, and the declarative mode of such productions has always left me
cold, and the actors, speaking into microphones, often read their lines as if
they were pronouncements instead of interactions and conversations between the
play’s characters. I’ve noticed this tendency in numerous radio productions, even
with the Orson Welles Theater group, who on film are quite brilliant, but over
the booming microphone sound like they performing in a high school speech
contest. Perhaps it is only “mode” of acting that a good director might rid his
actors of; certainly I have attended wonderful “readings” of plays that did not
involve radio broadcast. But, this production seemed, at times, as if each
actor was trying to outshout the others.
If nothing else, however, such radio
productions do give a strong sense of the drama’s actual structure and the
clear expression of the lines the actors speak. Although I had a few qualms
with the new translation of Rebecca Lenkiewicz—at times she translated the
language of the 1880s Norway in a contemporized English that made the play a
little “folksy” for my taste—basically the English language version served the
original well.
The character of Dr. Thomas Stockman is a
rather complex one, since he begins the play as a rather naïve would-be hero,
who believes his discovery of the pollution of the town’s major tourist attraction,
the local curative baths, will be feted by all, including his conservative
brother, Peter, the town mayor. At first, he seems to have the strong support
of the local newspaper in the form of its editor, Hovstad (Josh Stamberg) and
his young assistant, Billing (Jon Matthews). But when the mayor becomes
determined to ignore his brother’s report, he also quickly changes the minds of
the supposedly radical newsmen by explaining to them that a reconstruction of
the water source of the baths will cost taxpayers thousands of kroners and will
surely close the baths themselves—the town’s major financial resource—for at
least three years!
I’ve always felt that the sudden
transition of those who appear to be some of the most open-minded men of the
city from the Doctor’s supporters to his enemies creaked a bit. True, the
mayor’s logic—that if the city were to accept his brother’s allegations, it
would go bankrupt—is compelling; but their traitorous turn, from rabble rousers
to men who would, like everyone else, play it safe, is difficult to accept. But
then, so too is Thomas Stockman’s private belief that to the town may even
celebrate his dire news with a parade in his honor! All the characters except
for the single-minded mayor and Catherine’s old father—the town’s curmudgeonly
wealthy tannery-owner (the major source of the pollution)—quickly become
figures perfectly willing to throw away their stated values with the news of
Stockman’s discovery,. Even the doctor, who fights for his beliefs to the very
end, gradually shifts from a man completely involved with his community and its
people to an isolated figure who proclaims Ibsen’s somewhat disturbing declaration
that the “majority if always wrong,” and that only a special few have the
vision to perceive the truth.
Ibsen’s Nietzsche-inspired statements
seem, at times, dangerously close to fascism and, in particular, to the later
German postulates of their superiority as a race. While certainly we sympathize
with the Doctor for his failed attempts to tell the truth and his attempt to
keep his ability to look his sons and his family in the eyes, it is also hard
not condemn him for his strong sense of self-righteousness. And the nightmarish
series of events, including the loss of his job, his home, his children’s
legacy, and his daughter’s job becomes, in the end, a kind of choice he has
purposely made, abandoning everything else in his life for his vendetta against
those who will not accept his truth.
In any community of denial, one has to
also comprehend why the deniers refuse what appears so obvious to the
truth-tellers. Yes, it stems, often, from ignorance, lack of education,
bureaucracy, greed, and self-interest; but that does not mean that these issues
can be easily categorized or ignored. If the Doctor ends the play, as he
declares, as the strongest in the community because he “stands alone,” “the
enemy of the people” is still just that, a suborn enemy who will unlikely
convince anyone else. And there is a true danger that he may, years later,
become a bitter outsider like his father-in-law. And, in that sense, Ray’s film
version, where the Doctor ultimately takes his news outside of the community in
order to effect change within, is far more plausible. Ibsen’s Stockman may be
determined to stand his ground in the small community which he once loved, but
without any political savvy, he may simply be starving himself and his
family—both intellectually and physically—from the necessities they need in
order to survive. It is almost, in Ibsen’s vision, that through Stockman’s
isolation, the rest of the world does not exist; it is important to remember
that the Doctor has severely complained to the northern outpost where he served
before returning to his beloved hometown. Even Hamsun’s hungry writer in Hunger perceived that he may have leave
the country in order to survive. Thomas Stockman’s “strength” may also be his
greatest weakness. Just as the newspaper typesetter, Aslakan (Tom Virtue) always
preaches “moderation,” the good Doctor of An
Enemy of the People always preaches a kind of extremism. There are times
when you can’t save a society that doesn’t want to be saved. And we, outside
the play, know that, in the end, the truth will out; after the baths sicken
future tourists, both the spas and tannery will surely be abandoned and closed.
Los Angeles,
April 13, 2014
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