Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 9, 1990 TAG: 9006090501
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Miller has moved the play from a 19th century Norwegian village to a turn-of-the-century health spa in Maine in a new staging for "American Playhouse" on PBS. It will have its premiere Wednesday (at 9 p.m. on Channel 15 in the Roanoke viewing area).
"It's really a prophetic play," says Miller.
Jack O'Brien directs this version, which stars John Glover and George Grizzard as brothers who end up on opposite sides of an issue.
Glover plays a doctor who discovers that a tannery's faulty waste disposal system is polluting the town's water supply and is causing an epidemic of health problems. When he makes this public, the townspeople, led by Grizzard, the mayor, turn on him for fear it will harm the town's reputation as a health spa.
In 1950, when Miller adapted the play for Broadway, it spoke out against Sen. Joseph McCarthy's campaign against domestic communism. But the times have changed and the play is now seen as a cautionary tale about pollution.
"I saw the Ibsen play in London last year and realized why the ecology theme had such an impact," Miller says. "But that wasn't why Ibsen wrote the play. Ecology was hardly important in Norway in the last century. It was the right of someone to speak the truth against the will of the majority."
Ibsen wrote "An Enemy of the People" in 1881 after reading a newspaper account of a scientist who was vilified for reporting the pollution of a town's water supply.
The tourist dollars theme also was used by Peter Benchley in "Jaws." It told of a police chief who faced opposition from the mayor and townspeople when he tried to close a seaside resort's beaches because of attacks by a great white shark.
"One of the reasons I chose to adapt this play in 1950 was that Fredric March asked me to do it at the height of the McCarthy era," Miller says. "In that same period I wrote `The Crucible,' which is a parable of the McCarthy era."
Miller is also discussing an adaptation of "The Crucible" with executives of the Arts & Entertainment cable channel.
O'Brien, artistic director of the Old Globe Theater in San Diego, says what Miller has done is give "Enemy of the People" an "American spin."
"Bringing the play to America figures only obliquely in the story because Arthur has such respect for Ibsen," O'Brien says. "Arthur has written the dialogue in quintessential American cadence. But the relevance of this play written so long ago is scary.
"I just did Anton Chekhov's `Uncle Vanya,' which was written in 1892. It has a huge speech about conservation and ecological disasters. You would absolutely believe that play was written today. The same thing with Arthur's adaptation. So why shouldn't we take advantage of it?"
O'Brien, at the Globe Theater since 1981, puts on 12 to 15 shows a year. "Enemy of the People" is the fifth play he's directed for "The American Playhouse."
by CNB