An Enemy of the People (Herzog)

A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

An Enemy of the People (Herzog)

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  2w, 9m

By Henrik Ibsen
A New Version by Amy Herzog

Amy Herzog’s crackling adaptation of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People – first written and performed nearly 150 years earlier – is “a play for our time” (The Hollywood Reporter).

Image: 2024 Broadway Production (Emilio Madrid)

An Enemy of the People (Herzog)

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    2w, 9m
  • Duration
    Duration
    120 minutes (2 hours)
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Adaptation (Stage & Screen)
  • Suggested Use
    • Monologues
    • Scene Work
    • Competition or Audition Material
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult, Teen (Age 14-18)
Accolades
Accolades
  • Winner! 2024 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Adaptation
    Nominee: Five 2024 Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Play

Details

Summary
Amy Herzog’s streamlined adaptation of the Ibsen classic is a vibrant and compelling theatrical experience. A small-town doctor considers himself a proud, upstanding member of his close-knit community. When he discovers a catastrophe that risks the lives of everyone in town, he raises the alarm. But he is shaken to his core when those in power, including his own brother, try not only to silence him, but to destroy him.
History
Amy Herzog’s adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People premiered on Broadway at Circle in the Square Theatre on 18 March 2024. Directed by Sam Gold, the production featured Jeremy Strong, Michael Imperioli, Katie Broad, Caleb Eberhardt, Matthew August Jeffers, David Patrick Kelly, Victoria Pedretti, Thomas Jay Ryan and Alan Trong.
DR. THOMAS STOCKMANN – 40s. Medical director of the Baths.
PETRA STOCKMANN – Early 20s. Thomas’s daughter, a schoolteacher.
PETER STOCKMANN – 40s or 50s. Thomas’s brother, the town Mayor.
HOVSTAD – 30s. Editor of The People’s Messenger.
BILLING – 20s. Works for Hovstad.
ASLAKSEN – 50’s or 60s. Chair of the Property Owners’ Association.
CAPTAIN HORSTER – 20s. A ship’s captain.
MORTEN KIIL – 60s or 70s. Thomas’s father-in-law, owner of a tannery.
  • Time Period 19th Century
  • Setting A small town in Norway. Late 19th century, winter/spring.
  • Features Period Costumes
  • Duration 120 minutes (2 hours)
  • Cautions
    • Alcohol
    • Strong Language
    • Smoking

Media

“Relevant… Herzog’s clean but not noticeably modern phrasings hit just the right note.” – The New York Times

“Crackling and persuasive… a bitter satire of local politics that soon reveals itself as a slow-boil tragedy of human complacency.” – The New York Times

“Amy Herzog’s adaptation… is smart, sharp and relevant.” – Deadline

“Crunchily position[s] drama and wit, profundity and comedy, alongside one another. This brilliant Enemy of the People is notably funny in both its smarts and pacing.” – The Daily Beast

“Lively… a prescient play about the dangers of populist manipulation by those invested in the status quo.” – New York Daily News

“First staged over 140 years ago, Ibsen’s play feels eerily prescient… it also is a striking portrait of oppositional forces both strategically manipulative and stunningly violent.” – Entertainment Weekly

“A rousing adaptation of a story that carries a discomforting contemporary relevance… at times jarring, at times moving… the play is funnier than you’d expect for such gloomy matters.” – The Guardian

“Urgent and effective… [a] visceral distillation of the 1882 Ibsen drama… Herzog’s sharp dialogue is fluid and identifiably American in vernacular but not littered with anachronisms… Without ever hammering this play’s uncanny modern-day relevance, the new production deftly underscores the parallels of our current ugly political divide; the risks of being a whistleblower; distrust in science by people whose ignorance is manipulated by those in power; trial by public opinion; and a conflict between environmental and economic concerns, all of which will be familiar to 21st-century American audiences.” – The Hollywood Reporter

Videos

  • An Enemy of the People – Relevant Today  youtube thumbnail

    An Enemy of the People – Relevant Today

  • An Enemy of the People – The Moral Tapestry youtube thumbnail

    An Enemy of the People – The Moral Tapestry

  • Michael Imperioli, Jeremy Strong and Amy Herzog on An Enemy of the People  youtube thumbnail

    Michael Imperioli, Jeremy Strong and Amy Herzog on An Enemy of the People

  • Jeremy Strong and Michael Imperioli on the Emotional Intensity of An Enemy of the People  youtube thumbnail

    Jeremy Strong and Michael Imperioli on the Emotional Intensity of An Enemy of the People

Photos

  • An Enemy of the People (Herzog)

    Image: 2024 Broadway Production (Emilio Madrid)

  • An Enemy of the People (Herzog)

    Image: 2024 Broadway Production (Emilio Madrid)

  • An Enemy of the People (Herzog)

    Image: 2024 Broadway Production (Emilio Madrid)

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £55 per performance plus VAT when applicable.

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Authors

Amy Herzog

Amy Herzog’s plays include Mary Jane (New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award), 4000 Miles (Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Obie Award for Best New American Play), After the Revolution (New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award) and Belleville (Drama Desk Award nominee). She received ...
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Henrik Ibsen

At age 23, Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) became theatre director and resident playwright of the new National Theatre at Bergen, charged with creating a national drama. He directed the Norwegian Theatre in Kristiana from 1857 to 1863, when the theatre went bankrupt. He then set off ...

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