The Public Has ‘An Enemy of the People’ (Thurs., 2/6/26)

February 2, 2026/Prentiss Orr

AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE by Henrik Ibsen, adapted by Amy Herzog. Pittsburgh Public Theater. February 4 – 22.

Don’t be put off by the premise that this play, written in 1882 by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, is about a doctor who discovers a potentially lethal bacteria. A grand, newly completed resort with fancy bathing spas has solicited many civic and business leaders to invest heartily in the vast profits their small town will surely earn. And don’t be put off by suspicions of corrupt policy makers or highly debatable issues of what constitutes good public health. (Really? A play about some unseen organism?) No. An Enemy of the People, which opens at the Pittsburgh Public Theater, is actually about one person with moral principles standing up to self-dealing capitalists, standing against the economic interests of his community, and standing on his own for what he believes is right.

We all know this story because the conflict at its heart is singular, powerful, and complex: societal greed versus the common good. We hear it frequently these days. We all experienced the COVID epidemic and how our leaders, health experts, and the public at large grappled with common sense, masking protocols, and individual freedoms. We have heard our president call journalists enemies of the truth, inciting pundits left and right alike to question “whose truth?” And we daily dive into discussion about tax structure, emergency tariffs, vaccine protocols, immigration reform, and how to carry out true justice for all.

We know this story, too, from hundreds of similarly structured plays, books, and films. Remember that blockbuster movie about the island town Amity whose chief of police discovers evidence that a great white shark is scaring away the summer tourists? Indeed, Jaws is mostly about killing off “the deadly bacteria.” An Enemy of the People is about what one “chief of police” is willing to suffer to save others. Amy Herzog’s adaptation reels in Ibsen’s classic stage success. See An Enemy of the People at the O’Reilly Theater. 7 p.m. 621 Penn Ave., Cultural District. (C.P.O.)