Playwright: Henrik Ibsen, adapted by Robert Falls from a translation by Eleanor Marx-Aveling
At: Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St. Tickets: 312-443-3800; GoodmanTheatre.org; $25-$80. Runs through: April 15
Henrik Ibsen's 1882 drama about a beleaguered crusading environmentalist at odds with the powers-that-be in his small town ( including his own mayor brother ) has inspired a raft of other playwrights, from Arthur Miller to Chicago's Brett Neveu, whose contemporized take, Traitor, ran earlier this year at A Red Orchid Theatre.
Director Robert Falls' cunning adaptation at the Goodman exists in a netherworld between the past and present. Set designer Todd Rosenthal's blonde-wood walls evoke 20th-century Scandinavian modernism, and Ana Kuzmanic's costumes also blend contemporary and period details. But the script is as ripped-from-the-headlines as can be, replete with references to "fake facts," "deplorables" and calls to "drain the swamp."
The latter refers not only metaphorically to the culture of corruption in the town, but literally to the contaminants polluting the health spa that drives its economy. Dr. Thomas Stockmann ( Philip Earl Johnson ) discovers the pollution and expects a hero's reception for saving the day. But once Mayor Peter Stockmann ( Scott Jaeck ) enlists the fickle "radical" newspaper editor, Hovstad ( Aubrey Deeker Hernandez ) to turn the tide against his brother, the good doctor goes off in a rage at a town meeting. "Stupid people put stupid people in charge and the rest of us suffer." It's a sentiment that many of us may have felt since November 2016but also one that probably doesn't play well politically.
Johnson's Dr. Stockmann shifts from self-satisfaction at his discovery, to anguish, to resignation as he sees how little scientific facts matter when the threat of tax hikes and job losses are held over people's heads like an economic Damoclean sword. It's a febrile and often-hypnotic performance, balanced by Lanise Antoine Shelley as Katherine Stockmann, the doctor's sensible wife, and Rebecca Hurd as his idealistic schoolteacher daughter, Petra.
David Darlow as Morton Kiil, Dr. Stockmann's rascally father-in-law ( and the owner of the tannery that's mostly responsible for the pollution ), and Allen Gilmore as Aslaksen, the printer and "small business owner" whose neutrality takes a nosedive once his pocketbook is threatened by Dr. Stockmann's findings, embody the Chamber of Commerce types who prefer the status quo at all costs.
In the second act, there are dozens of "extras" as townspeople who turn on Dr. Stockmann in short and frightening order. It cunningly raises the question of the effectiveness of public rhetoric and public protest. But as Johnson's Dr. Stockmann learns to his sorrow, being the smartest person in the room isn't enough to sway an angry crowd.