An Enemy of the People

The play was set at the Duke of York's Theatre in London's St Martins' Lane and is an updated production of the Henrik Ibsen original.

My youngest sister had kindly provided the tickets which at £155 each were hardly cheap. 

As an aside however, there was  recent article in The Times newspaper which showed that the cost of theatre tickets was not really expensive, given the numbers of people involved these days in setting up productions. Apparently  theatre tickets in  New York's Broadway theatres tend to cost even more. In any event, the seats near the front on the ground floor of the theatre, were ideal for us although sadly mrs maytrees was ill and unable to enjoy the show with youngest sister and I.

The weather that morning was dreadful with Storm Nelson in full swing. There were ambulances and police cars whilst I was walking along Worple Road towards the station, as there had been a fearful accident of some kind at the mid-road Thames Water works. No way would mrs maytrees and I together, have been able to make the theatre in time. Huge queues had formed at bus stops enroute. 

Walking to the Duke of Yorks theatre from Waterloo station was little better in the wind and rain. However I made it just in time.

The play itself was excellent. The 'plot' was essentially about a town rather like the town of Bath in England, where a local had discovered that the water supply was probably (there was only a single report) badly polluted.  He Peter Stockmann, was a political  leftie.  His brother Dr Thomas Stockmann, happened to be the town's mayor and was adamant that the possibility of pollution was not leaked to the people through the local press, pointing out that the re-piping of the supply upsteam, would cost an unaffordable one hundred million. The leftie's wife Katharina Stockmann, had  a small baby and grandfather occasionally entered the stage with his dog. The latter was pretty well behaved  though the family's baby  amusingly squalled from time to time.

The first half of the play contained some great singing by Katharina Stockmann together with drums and guitar playing, interspersed with arguments about the pollution,  which were all very entertaining.

The second half, was very unusual at least in my experience. 

The theatre audience lights came on and the people in the audience were asked what were essentially political questions, with members of the cast passing round microphones, so that individuals' answers could be heard and commented, upon from the stage and by others in the audience. Thus for example, one questioner criticised current British politicians, mentioning Kier Starmer by name; another Amazon and Google, with the actors always bringing the answers back to the politics of the Bath Town and its water supply.

I would have liked to ask questions about the weakening of Christianity in the country these days coinciding with an increase in many of the country's, or should I say Bath Town's problems, but that would  probably have been a distraction.

An excellent production and the walk back to London's Waterloo station was easier than the journey out had been, as the rain had cleared up.