About the work
Henrik Ibsen's five-act drama En folkefiende was premiered in 1883, just months after the scandal surrounding Ghosts. Written as a direct response to the hostile reception of that earlier work, the play concerns the relationship between majority opinion and truth and is regarded as one of the most significant political dramas in world literature.
Plot
Dr. Stockmann, spa physician in a Norwegian coastal town, discovers that the waters of the local health resort are contaminated. Remediation would take two years and ruin the town's finances. His brother, the mayor, tries to suppress the truth. When Stockmann insists on publication, first the press turns against him, then the citizens. At a public meeting, he is declared an 'enemy of the people'; his family loses work and standing. Stockmann remains—defiant, alone, but unbroken—and declares: 'The strongest man in the world is the one who stands most alone.'
Cultural significance
An Enemy of the People is perhaps the most frequently performed political drama in world theatre and has been reread in every social crisis since its composition—from the McCarthy era and the environmental movement through contemporary debates about whistleblowers and fake news. Arthur Miller adapted the play for Broadway in 1950; Thomas Ostermeier staged it in 2012 at the Schaubühne Berlin as a commentary on the financial crisis. The figure of Stockmann remains a benchmark for civic disobedience on the stage.