THEATRE: Andrew Wilson
IN transporting Henrik Ibsen’s 19th-century naturalist drama An Enemy of the People to a local context, Wits University’s chairman of African languages, Professor Nhlanhla Maake’s adaptation is, in his own words, “a prostitute”. But it’s a hooker with no sell-by date because Ibsen’s timeless themes of power, corruption and the quest for truth are both universal and current.
In the original 1882 play, Dr Stockman exposes impurities in the water at the town baths, and in his attempts to save the town, discovers that truth can be an unpopular bedfellow. It is a romantic salute to individualism in an age where the notion of an individual standing alone on principle against the odds was accepted as inspirational and possible.
In stark contrast stands New York theatre writer Charles Marowitz’s 1982 adaptation, where the principled Dr Stockman ends the play not in triumph, but in isolation. In modern society, according to Marowitz, the lone voice “which articulates ‘the ideal’ has, at best, only a poetic significance. The reward for committed idealism is not the accumulation of inner strength, but a one-way ticket to oblivion.”
Professor Maake’s adaptation, set in the town of Warmbaths, falls somewhere between Ibsen and Marowitz. Dr Mish discovers water-borne impurities and the rot in the local administration, the media and industry. Maake’s intention with the adaptation is to stimulate debate on whether society should be re-aligning, in terms of itself and the individual, within it. He is concerned with society’s capacity to question and its ability to avoid developing a herd instinct.
Unlike Marowitz’s bleak ending, Maake’s hopeful, if perhaps a little sentimental, Dr Mish is shunned by society, but finds solace and support in his family.
Both the adaptation and the production took into account the varying degrees of talent and experience at the Wits Drama School, resulting in a production of varying degrees of success.
Solid performances by Matthews Molefe as Dr Mish and Litheko Mascola as the mayor, were unable to humanise a didactic arena where debate took preference over the human dynamic.
As an adaptation seeking to comment on some of society’s current concerns, An Enemy of the People is a lone voice calling for independent and critical thought in a society of factions, affiliations and historically driven power blocs.
Power to the People is one of a series of productions celebrating Wits Theatre’s 21st anniversary