This article was written by The Zillennial Zine’s spring editorial intern Henry Ryeder. Find him on Instagram at @henryryeder. If you would like to share an article with The Zillennial, send us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com.
Steve McQueen was undeniably the world’s biggest star in the mid 1970’s. Synonymous in both mainstream and counter-culture as the epitome of American self-projection, McQueen was at the height of his power when he decided to star in a screen adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s play An Enemy of the People. McQueen immersed himself in the world, taking inspiration from period-accurate photographs and overseeing the construction of the film’s sets himself. It’s no secret that the King of Cool was never one for soliloquy, but McQueen delivered the Stockmann’s lengthy, didactic Act IV monologue as written. McQueen hadn’t starred in a film for four years by the time of An Enemy of the People was slated for release by Warner Bros. Recipe for success, right?
Warner Bros. shelved the project. The studio was at a loss as to how to properly promote the film, a dialogue-heavy star vehicle in which the world-famous star was rendered unrecognizable by mountains of makeup and hair. The initially released promotional poster confusingly showed McQueen’s Dr. Thomas Stockmann surrounded by cutout images of McQueen from earlier films, beckoning the audiences with a reminder that these were all the same star. The film was shown at West Coast college campuses in 1978 but quickly pulled from wide release. It was accidentally shown at drive-in theaters in 1979, and finally debuted at New York’s Public Theater in 1981, months after McQueen had died due to complications stemming from mesothelioma.
An Enemy of the People is a curious play to inject into the veins of American culture at any historical moment. Written by Ibsen in 1882 and partially inspired by contemporary reactions to his work, People follows Dr. Thomas Stockmann, a scientist who learns that the town’s baths are poisoned by runoff the local tannery. Stockmann risks his reputation as he butts heads with his brother Peter, the magistrate and chief of police desperate to keep the looming crisis under wraps from the general public. Stockmann and his daughter Petra are soon ostracized for their disruptive claims, forcing the elder Stockmanns into a stand-off with each other at a town hall meeting.
At the heart of People is Ibsen’s prescient depiction of a withering sociopolitical system flagrantly promoting conformity at the expense of the truth. Stockmann may be a figment of a 19th Century playwright’s imagination, but he and Petra’s fight is emblematic of activist struggle regardless of context. George Orwell wrote that totalitarianism sets up “unquestionable dogmas, and it alters them from day to day.” This concept is explained in literary form in 1984. “Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.” This concept can be easily applied to how truth is manufactured by governments in modern Western societies. Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Iraq has always had weapons of mass destruction. The United States promotes democracy worldwide. The United States has always promoted democracy worldwide. Fossil fuel is at the heart of our nation’s prosperity. Fossil fuel has always been at the heart of our nation’s prosperity.
In Act IV of An Enemy of the People, Hovstad, the editor of the local paper, exclaims to a crowd that his intentions with his publication’s content derive from an urge to serve the community’s interests. “But what is an editor’s foremost and most noble duty, gentlemen? Is it not to act in accordance with his readers? Has he not been given a tacit mandate, as it were, to dauntlessly and steadfastly promote the welfare of his like-minded fellows?” Hovstad’s mission statement, one that conflates public opinion with those who play a hand in influencing public opinion, is one of People’s central questions. How willing should we be to blame the obfuscation of truth and on an apathetic and obsequious public? How much of that same apathy is driven by the systems that inform (or misinform) them? In this reading of People, complicity is shared by all, even those subject to totalitarian indoctrination.
This includes theatergoers. Broadway’s latest incarnation of An Enemy of the People debuted on March 18. Starring Succession‘s Jeremy Strong (Thomas Stockmann), The Sopranos’ Michael Imperioli (Peter), and You‘s Victoria Pedretti (Petra), the latest run of People features a fresh adaptation by esteemed playwright Amy Herzog, and direction from Sam Gold (Herzog’s husband.) Gold’s staging places the audience in the round, allowing the final town hall showdown between the Stockmann brothers to be experienced as a shared public shaming event.
It was in this peculiar setting that protesters from the Extinction Rebellion took action on March 15th. The protest, conducted by the climate-focused organization, took place during one of the final previews, timed in conjunction with press turnout. Protesters, seated in the audience, interrupted the play during the Act IV town hall. One protester exclaimed, “No theater on a dead planet!”, while another implored theatergoers to be cognizant of the play’s message after they left the theater. While the audience largely shunned the protesters, the actors themselves took a different approach. While Strong himself didn’t intervene during the protest, Imperioli went into the crowd, forcing the protesters out of the theater (all while in character as the consent-manufacturing Peter.)
Imperioli went onto to describe his sympathies for the protesters’ intentions after the performance. “I started calling them liars because that would be my character’s stance on climate change because that’s his stance on the poison in the water,” Imperioli told Rolling Stone. “I’m the mayor and I’m the chief of police,” Imperioli explained, noting that he’s “in agreement with those protesters.” Pedretti herself noted that she found the entire experience exciting, and a reminder of “what can happen in live theater.” Strong, who for the most part stayed quiet during the action, chimed up after a protester chided the failure of governments, responding with an understated, “He’s right.” Later, on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Strong described that, while he wasn’t happy with the protest happening on his stage, would be a “hypocrite” not to support the protesters’ message. “I’ve got kids,” Strong explained, “[The protest] only underlined the message of the play, which is that we’re all in this together.”
Videos of the March 15th protest went viral within a matter of days. Nate Smith, one of the protesters, was interviewed in Variety on March 19th. Pressed on the decision to disrupt a work of art so closely ideologically aligned with the group’s ethos, Smith countered, “The reactions of like, ‘Why aren’t you doing this to the people in charge?’ Like we are doing that all the time. All the time. But how many of those have you heard about in The New York Times?”
Just like the An Enemy of the People protest, the play itself is about more than Ibsen. It’s about more than Sam Gold. It’s about more than Jeremy Strong, or Victoria Pedretti, or the Extinction Rebellion. It’s about how public complacency and institutional malevolence burn the truth in effigy, all while refuting environmental crises that none of can afford to ignore. While it can certainly be argued to be reductive, Jeremy Strong’s sentiment is right. We’re all in this together.
An Enemy of the People runs for a limited engagement on Broadway at the Circle in the Square Theater until June 16th.
What do you think about the An Enemy of the People protest? Leave a comment below!
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