This is one of the plays that was written over 100 years ago but still relevant today because it reflects on what is still happening today. It revolves around water issues in the Flinch town of Minch. There is a protest in for a pipeline of Dakota access and there are water access issues in the west. There are conflicts between shareholders and citizens, business and science, and government and media. This drama will seem like the modern morning news.
The play An Enemy of the People is set in such a way that it makes the audience or the reader reflect and question how they think, how they are tricked by the politicians, the effects of poor governance on their families and the political events around the world. The play has been played in many theatres and taught in many schools.
This play is about a man who reveals a threat to the community that water is contaminated and decides to expose it even if everyone ignores him. The whole idea is to was to let the citizens know the truth without considering the consequences of how many people the secret would hurt many people. It provides them with a chance to make a choice or keep quiet and make people suffer but keep them safe. It shows how media coverage influences policies today and how information shapes the life of people. If you watch the play from a well-rehearsed theatre group you will see these issues coming out clearly.
The play portrays how media shape our public opinion. How the media covers the conflict of this water crisis in the play it shows how the media influence opinions both locally and internationally are it in the race, assaults, religion, and victims of different assaults.
One main actor is a medical officer known as Dr. Stockman who works at town baths. At the beginning of the play, he is waiting for the lab results to see if the water is contaminated. His daughter Petra brings the results and it confirms his idea that water is contaminated. They have heavy bacterial which can affect much life of people. Many towns are considering opening new baths but these in Dr. Stockman city are considered to be a tourist attraction. Stockman can’t wait to be a village hero for his discovery which will save his locals. He has the left-wing press on his side and it gives him full support to continue with his idea. The press has a paper called The people’s messenger with a publisher known as Alaskan who is a man of temperance and moderation which makes the play humorous. Stockman’s brother is the mayor of the town and he is fearing the negative effect of the baths when they are closed for two years for renovation which will also be costly to find another supplier. The doctor doesn’t see all that and he is planning to let his discovery out and face the consequences. There are two versions of contamination one for Doctor and the other for his brother. The mayor tells the media to go with his version and the Doctor gets angry and calls a meeting and tells the people his own findings. Inside the play, there is a drunkard who keeps disturbing when there is a town meeting which is meant to declare Dr. Stockman as the enemy of the people. Aslaken is elected the chair of the meeting.
Later the doctors’ house is attacked with stones. It is followed by a twist of events with captain Petr being sacked and Dr. Stockman losing his job. Kill buys all the shares of baths when Doctors’ discovery made the price go down. This made people accuse Doctor of causing the shares to go down just for Kill to buy them. Finally, Dr. Stockman remains the strongest man who is standing alone.