"Scales new heights of excitement and fascination."
- The Guardian, London

 

-London Times

- Melbourne Herald Sun

 

The world premiere of An Enemy of the People was at the internationally renowned Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz in Berlin, followed by critically acclaimed engagements around the world including Avignon, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Buenos Aires, Copenhagen, Istanbul, London’s Barbican Centre, Melbourne, Oslo, Paris, Seoul and Venice.

 

 

Berlin's esteemed Schaubühne theater presents a radically revised adaptation of An Enemy of the People, Ibsen's potent 1882 drama about individual and social responsibility.

 

The story of a whistleblower in a small town whose efforts to speak truth to power are shut down by his self-interested neighbours, the play both implicates and exhilarates its audience in a conversation about the perils of democratic capitalism.

 

Directed by Thomas Ostermeier, for decades a leading creative voice and provocateur in the European theater, the production has received strong reactions from audiences and critics alike, largely because of its controversial handling of the play's climactic scene.

 

 

Dr. Stockmann discovers that the source of drinking and spa water is riddled with pathogenic micro-organisms, caused by industrial effluence.

 

Stockmann wants to publish the findings in the newspaper and demands that the city council re-route the water pipes. Influential citizens and local journalists promise their support.

 

 

However, his brother Peter, the councillor of the city, raises some serious concerns: The economic prosperity of the spa town will be threatened and the citizens will have to bear the brunt of the high repair costs.

 

Suddenly the support for Stockmann from the town’s policymakers begins to wane. They spread seeds of doubt about his plans and try to cover up the fact of the contaminated water.

 

 

But Stockmann insists on transparency and intends to go public on the matter. In an all-important speech, he hopes to win the town over to his way of thinking. He accepts that this will cause a permanent rift between himself and his brother and that he also runs the risk of being ostracized by the community.

 

For him, the affair has long since ceased to be about the polluted health spa, his target is society as a whole.

 

 

Ibsen’s drama wavers on a fine line between honesty and fanaticism.

 

What is the potential for transparency in a commercialized society?

 

Schaubühne Berlin
The Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz was founded in 1962. Since 1999 it has been led by artistic director Thomas Ostermeier. Currently, productions by Romeo Castellucci, Katie Mitchell, Rodrigo García, Yael Ronen and choreographer Constanza Macras are being shown at the theatre.

 

At the same time, the Schaubühne showcases its productions abroad in over 100 performances every year: whether at big international theatre festivals like the Festival d’Avignon, the Salzburg Festival, the Athens and Epidaurus Festival, the Festival Internacional de Buenos Aires (FIBA) and the Territorija Festival in Moscow; or as guest performances at theatres around the world including in New York, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Quebec, São Paulo, London, Moscow, Oslo, Ramallah, Melbourne, Ottawa, Taipei, Tel Aviv, Seoul, Rennes, Barcelona, Adelaide, Tokyo, Prague, Sydney, Montreal and Beijing.