Tests that reveal contaminated water in the local hot springs pose an existential threat to townspeople whose livelihoods depend on tourist dollars in Bart DeLorenzo’s electrifying contemporary adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s ahead-of-its-times 1882 shocker Enemy Of The People.

Like his 19th-century Norwegian counterpart, Dr. Thomas Stockmann (Jay Paulson) has made the horrifying discovery of water tainted in large part by the tannery once run by his father-in-law Martin Kiel (Dennis Dun), though the “why” of the matter is of far less importance to Thomas than getting the potentially illness-causing hot springs shut down posthaste.

And it seems at first that not only is his wife Kate (Cara Mitsuko) on his side but so too are local news site editor Hudson (DeJuan Christopher) and The People‘s Voice reporter Billing (Clay Hollander), the pair of them excited by the number of clicks this news bombshell is bound to generate.

Considerably less enthusiastic (and that’s putting it mildly) is Thomas‘s brother Mayor Peter Stockmann (Jason McBeth), for whom tourist revenue trumps whatever “health hazards” his alarmist sibling is shooting his mouth off about, and the more she thinks about it, the more wealthy news site backer Anna Scalzo (Lauren Campedelli) tends to agree with the mayor.

DeLorenzo’s adaptation, like Ibsen’s original, asks audiences to decide for themselves whose side they would find themselves on, not nearly as easy a task as it might seem because who among us would gladly risk our livelihoods for the sake of the greater good? Maybe you would, but I’m not so sure about myself, which is just one reason that Enemy Of The People hits close to home.

And the core themes it delves into (Can truth triumph when opposed by the rich and powerful? Can one person be heard when the majority outshout him both literally and figuratively? Is being a lone voice in the wilderness worth the price that must be paid?) remain as relevant now as they were a century and a half ago, and probably even more so today when polarization and misinformation reign supreme.

Unlike the Ibsen original, which can run two-and-a-half hours or more, Enemy Of The People a la DeLorenzo clocks in at a fast-paced hundred minutes during which the tension never lets up, thanks in large part to Jonathan Flikke’s tinspired sound design, whose subtly pulsating underscoring adds immeasurably to the dramatic suspense.

Not only that, but there is not a trace of the kind of antiquated or awkward-sounding language you sometimes hear when a contemporary playwright adapts a classic play. Indeed, if you didn’t know otherwise, you’d never guess that Enemy Of The People is anything other than a Bart DeLorenzo original.

And DeLorenzo’s direction is as razor-sharp as his writing, keeping audiences on the edges of our seats as alliances shift and our crusading hero finds himself a lone voice shouting into the wind, or rather into a microphone in the play’s most explosive sequence during which a tour-de-force Paulson rages against everything that’s wrong in the world today to do any MS-NOW pundit proud.

McBeth’s weaselly mayor is a standout among supporting players, though Campadelli’s crafty powerbroker, Christopher’s pragmatic news site editor, Dun’s enigmatic retired tannery owner, Hollander’s eager young reporter, and Mitsuko’s supportive wife are uniformly terrific.

So is the absolutely splendid production design Enemy Of The People has been given, beginning with scenic designer Frederica Nascimento’s gorgeous set (including a fishless aquarium presumably filled with hot springs water) in shades of sea green and burnt amber, a match for Hollander’s red hair and green sweater, the latter just one of Nascimento’s character-perfect costumes, all of the above stunningly lit by W. Alejandro Melendez as is change scenic artist Marine Walton’s striking backdrop of tangled bare branches.

Enemy Of The People is produced by Beth Hogan and presented by Odyssey Theatre Ensemble.

Michael Lanham is assistant to the director. Mona Heinze, Larry George, and Lanham are dramaturgs. Katie Chabot is production stage manager and Eleina Liang is assistant stage manager. Danny Felix is technical director. Casting is by Nicole Arbusto. Lucy Pollak is publicist.

Unlike Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 paradigm-shifting bombshell, Bart DeLorenzo’s 2026 adaptation seems unlikely to shock anyone who keeps up with the news (or has cheered on Erin Brockovich’s fight against corporate greed), but that doesn’t make it any less compelling or conversation-starting. Simply put, adaptations don’t get much better than this.

Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. Through September 27. Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00. Sundays at 3:00. Also Wednesday September 16 at 8:00.
www.odysseytheatre.com

–Steven Stanley
August 22, 2026
Photos: Cooper Bates

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Tags: Bart DeLorenzo, Henrik Ibsen, Los Angeles Theater Review, Odyssey Theatre Ensemble