An Enemy of the People

Spurred by his maddening experiences with censorship, Ibsen wrote An Enemy of the People to depict how society deliberately and ruthlessly ostracizes its truth-tellers. When Dr. Stockmann discovers that his city’s baths are contaminated, he immediately sets out to warn his fellow citizens. Terrified of losing the baths’ tourist dollars, the citizens refuse to accept Dr. Stockmann’s claims. Ibsen captures the courage of one man fighting the tyranny of the majority in a play that remains inescapably modern. Kjetil Bang-Hansen makes his Shakespeare Theatre Company debut directing the world premiere of a new adaptation by Nicholas Rudall. Bang-Hansen is the former artistic director of Den Nationale Scene, one of Norway’s three national theatres and where Ibsen served as writer-in-residence from 1851 to 1857.