Text taken fromLiterNet.ro | author: Mihai Brezeanu

En folkefiende / An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen (1882). Ein Volksfeind / An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen, version adapted by Thomas Ostermeier and Florian Borchmeyer and staged by the former at the Schaubühne, in Berlin, in 2012. Enemy of the People, the Ostermeier-Borchmeyer version, translated from English by Radu Iacoban and staged by him at the Regina Maria Theatre in Oradea in November 2024. The first title programmed within the 2025 edition of the Arad International New Theatre Festival.

Two brothers, the mayor of a medium-sized city (Peter – Richard Balint) and the head of the city's spa resort, a doctor by profession (Thomas – Răzvan Vicoveanu), two journalists, the editor-in-chief of the local newspaper (Hovstad – Alin Stanciu) and the deputy editor-in-chief (Billing – Tudor Manea), the newspaper's editor (Nina Aslaksen – Gabriela Codrea), the doctor's wife (Katharina – Alina Leonte), her stepmother, the owner of the city's industrial park (Marta Kill – Elvira Rîmbu) and a moderator (Oradea journalist Lucian Cremeneanu).

The brother discovers a severe sanitary problem with the water in the city's spa resort, caused by the industrial park owned by his mother-in-law, the mayor is scared of the economic and political consequences of the discovery and tries to cover up the case, journalists take various positions between the two camps, Marta Kill makes a surprising commercial move.

The interior of the house inhabited by Thomas and Katharina evokes a huge living room placed in the heart of a spa (scenography: Tudor Prodan). On each of the 3 sides, two huge showers with a spotlight embedded in their pear. At a certain moment, when the amateur rock band formed by Katharina, Thomas and the two journalists sing Take on Me by A-ha), the spotlights in the showers and several other lighting fixtures produce a completely remarkable choreography (lighting design: Lucian Moga).

The music and various sounds (sound design: Aida Šošić) and the lights are those that, throughout the show, enhance, among other things, the mysterious space imagined by Tudor Prodan behind the transparent wall in the depths of the stage. We see there two white deck chairs and a stylized version of a forest / jungle. A place of pleasure & relaxation, unaware of what is revealed, spoken, shouted, buried in its proximity.

Parenthesis: The habit of the Iacoban – Prodan duo of placing their shows in play spaces delimited, in depth, by transparent curtains beyond which mysterious spaces materialize (in addition to An Enemy of the People, it is worth mentioning, for example, Rhinocerii from the Youth Theatre in Piatra-Neamț, premiere 2023, or Nora. A House with Dolls. Part Two from the National Theatre Timișoara, premiere 2022) deserves a separate analysis.

After the break, the show descends into the hall. The Ostermeier-Borchmeyer version transfers the meeting with the city's residents convened by the mayor and having the doctor as the main speaker, into the hall, among the spectators. First, two monologues excellently performed by Richard Balint and Răzvan Vicoveanu. Then, vox populi.

Lucian Cremeneanu gets into his role very well and supports the 15-minute portion that varies from one performance to another. In Arad, during the week of the 2nd round of the May 2025 presidential elections, politics did not, surprisingly, take the lion's share. Apart from the mention of a candidate that appeared in the very first intervention, the rest of those who commented bet on, surprise-surprise, nuance! They sought to broaden the discussion, to refuse the Procrustean framework of the dilemma depicted by the text. They imagined possible solutions to avoid the radical alternative of closing the spa versus closing the eyes. In the era (I was writing the week) of mindless radicalization, a handful of Arad spectators brought back to the center of attention the debate oriented towards resolving the situation depicted with minimal losses for all parties!

Starting from evidence based on solid scientific foundations (that is, in stark opposition to any current tendency to make fun of hundreds of years of knowledge), the doctor character (the only one who does not descend between the stalls) produces a long speech that deviates greatly from the original facts. Watching Răzvan Vicoveanu (in great form!), I was reminded of Romeu Costa, the Portuguese actor whose demented monologue concluded Catarina and the Beauty of Killing Fascists, a production directed by Tiago Rodrigues at the Teatro Nacional Dona Maria II in Lisbon and presented in Bucharest at the opening of the 2023 National Theatre Festival.

On the one hand, an honest and moral scientist. On the other hand, an extreme right-wing politician, of abject morality. On the one hand, an anti-system speech, exposing the terrible disease of profit at any cost, the extreme polarization of society, the role of cogs lacking free will in an enormous and malignant mechanism assigned to many people. On the other hand, a grotesque and horrifying speech brimming with nationalism, xenophobia, racism, homophobia, misogyny. I bet there are viewers who assimilate the speech of the doctor in An Enemy of the People with that of the extreme right-wing candidates declared anti-system!

The ending leaves the door open for interpretations. Not only regarding the reason for the monologue mentioned above, but also regarding the decision of the Katharina – Thomas couple. The discussion on the topic of abdication or even from one's own values and beliefs will be carried out by the spectators without a moderator, on the way home or to the juice. The voices of the people continue to be heard.