TimeLine Theatre opens its brand new $46 million Uptown playhouse with the classic 1880’s drama “An Enemy of the People,” written by Henrik Ibsen and adapted by Amy Herzog in 2024 for a Broadway remount.
Walking into the new theater, with its packed lobby bar, there is an air of celebration. In a precarious time for theaters across the country, due to cuts in national funding, shifts in philanthropic priorities, and diminished audiences, a new theater complex is something to cheer.
According to chatter from fellow patrons on this night, TimeLine’s lobby area will serve as more than a theater-adjacent pub. It also has potential as a co-working space for Uptown residents, making it a theater that could function as a home away from home.
Ibsen’s drama, which was nominated for five Tonys in its recent New York revival, is presented to a progressive Chicago audience that clearly understands the parallels between themes penned nearly 150 years ago and the current political climate.
In the play, Dr. Thomas Stockmann (Will Allan) has discovered a contamination in the water of a spa in his Norwegian town. It just so happens that Dr. Stockmann co-founded this spa with his brother, Peter Stockmann (Behzad Dabu), who is the town mayor. The mayor believes the spa is crucial to the financial health of the whole community.
And here lies the central conflict: the spa waters make people sick. In order to solve the problem, and save lives, they must shut down the spa — which will bankrupt the town.
Ibsen crafted a straightforward story of individual morality, and he masterfully portrays the difficulty of speaking truth to power in the face of widespread corruption. The storyline offers a stark reminder that human nature hasn’t changed much in the last 100 years as we still see powerful people putting profits before the well being of the public everyday (or at least every time we turn on the news).
Director Ron OJ Parson has a knack for working with talented ensembles while allowing space for individual performances to shine. Allan is excellent as Dr. Stockmann. He’s truly engaging as his social circle crumbles, and his friends evolve into foes. Dabu portrays a formidable antagonist as the powerful small town politician who, even as villain, truly believes he’s the hero.
The themes in the play feel more important than ever. But here is where I take my millennial heel turn. Sitting in an audience, where everyone around me is likely a generation older than I am, it feels safe. But I want the opposition to have a stronger voice. I wanted to question the stance I walked into the theater with to maybe dive deeper into my own sensibilities. Here, boundaries are not pushed. No risk is taken. Instead it feels like it expresses ideals that we all already mutually agreed upon.
That’s because the production offers little in the way of a counterargument. Allan portrays the hero doctor admirably, and at times he’s almost too compelling. As an audience, we are seeing science be attacked in real time in our real lives. This should easily resonate. But here, the arguments against science are farcical. Outside of Dabu, the rest of the characters pitted against the doctor feel flat.
It’s too easy to root for the doctor when his adversaries are morally unequipped to spar with him. In the second act, when Dr. Stockmann presents his argument for spa closure to the town, he easily outwits each character standing in opposition. The staging is clever, and the decision to send actors into the aisles and seats to interact with the audience and pull us in as mock townspeople, adds an appreciated touch.
But in a show with so much potential to spark larger conversations, there’s no real substance for debate.
TimeLine has a reputation for staging historical dramas with contemporary connections. This worthwhile show, which argues the importance of free speech and social responsibilities, is a great choice for the inaugural opening. But with flat antagonists, the production comes off a little one-sided: a victory for the “enemy” but less compelling for the audience.