A friend called me Tuesday to invite me to join him at An Enemy of the People. Although I’d already seen it, I took him up
on his kind offer, because I knew his seats would be great and because I’d seen
the show before early in the preview process. I was hoping to get a better sense of the
production, since they’re opening tonight.
Anyway, I’m glad I went!
I thought the production was really good and most of the pacing problems
that I had noticed before weren’t evident last night. Boyd Gaines has really honed and tightened
his portrayal – the scene in the town meeting is terrifying (in a good way) and
the last scene is heartbreaking. The
‘duel’ still seems awkward, but now in a character way instead of an unsure
actor way. Dr. Stockmann is a very complex character and
Boyd Gaines captures this complexity beautifully. Just the way he sheds his coat and shoes in
the first scene says so much about this character.
Richard Thomas, who I also found to be excellent last month, was
even more terrific the second time. He’s
really found such wonderful shadings of evil and spite, yet you still see the
wounded brother with regrets. Really expertly done. The scenes between Gaines and Thomas just crackle,
though I did wonder if they would REALLY sit at that table for so long...
The other actors are grand as well. No complaints about the acting at all. Oddly enough, the aspects I noticed the most
at my second visit were the lighting and the adaptation. Oh, and the set curtain. From the first row of the mezzanine, the set curtain
looked odd. From the tenth row center,
it looked (and worked) great. I wonder
why that is… I hadn’t noticed last time
how well the lighting works with the intimacy of the piece, even across a vast
stage. There are lots of use of pin
spots and fades that really work beautifully.
Thumbs up on the lighting design.
The adaptation.
Hmmmm. Again, I don’t really know
the play well enough to accurately critique this version, but it did again
appear to me to be really chopped. The
turnaround of the newspaper editor comes within the space of a few seconds--I
know Richard Thomas could talk me into anything, but really? One sentence sways the Editor? And if the point is that the Editor is so
stupid that one sentence would work on him, that didn’t get played up
before. I could buy the quick reversal
of Aslaksen, the printer, but I just feel like some of the guts of the scene between the
Mayor and the Editor have been excised for time. I enjoyed the lean and mean aspect of the
piece and the way it propelled forward, but a little more in that scene could’ve
helped set up the horror of the town meeting even more.
This really is the perfect play to be presenting during an
election season. The strength of a
single voice against a sea of dissenters is a powerful image right now. I really do think this Enemy of the People is especially worth seeing now – not only
because of its message, but because the message is being conveyed by two of the
best stage actors in America right now.
(I took these photos the day after I saw the performance – I
was playing with a new phone app so that’s why there are different
effects. Of course, as I was taking
these photos, Richard Thomas walked by and smiled. I was frozen, like a lump, and couldn’t say a
word. Sigh. I hate when that happens. Hopefully, if I see him again, I can tell him
how much I enjoyed the show…)
No comments:
Post a Comment