The Enemy of the People

Premise: A scientist discovers that the waters of the baths, which pull people to travel to a village, are polluted and cause illness. He wants the town to spread the news, acknowledge the problem and fix it. Naively, he expects to be hailed as hero, but instead he’s loathed as the “enemy of the people.”

My take: This play is extremely preachy and the characters seem wooden. Writers like Emile Zola, Upton Sinclair and Ernest Poole do a superior job writing about social causes. I started reading because it was chosen for a book club. Then I had to miss that meeting. I figured I’d finish it anyway. If it weren’t a play and was a novel, I wouldn’t have slogged through it.

Ibsen, add some satire to leaven the play. You can still make your point with some humor.