Last Friday, Mer took me to Grove City College in Pennsylvania. Two of our former students were acting in An Enemy of the People at the school, and we were eager to see the play. I knew almost nothing about the play, although I had seen another play, The Doll’s House, by the same playwright. I had liked Doll’s House, but had not liked any of the characters, and since the play was translated from the original Norwegian, it had felt a little stiff to me. Anyway, I was looking forward to what Meredith calls “a pure viewing,” where I knew almost nothing of the play.

A quick storyline for those not familiar with it – it concerns a town that has invested heavily in medical baths/spas in the 19th century. The local doctor finds out the baths are contaminated with bacteria, and are therefore lethal to use. Closing the baths would ruin the local economy, but leaving them open would kill people. The play deals with the issues raised by this problem. (As an aside, it struck me as a small-scale version of the global warming debate, with many of the same tactics being used. I felt a lot less smug when I realized that.)

We ate in town at the Main Street Diner, where the food was good, but the service was a bit slow. We grabbed some Dairy Queen on the way to the theater for dessert, and we got to the theater about 15 minutes before the play started. We headed to the front row, which seems not to be taken at Grove City – we have sat in the front row for three productions there. As we sat down, we admired the set – a large wooden structure that was the inside of a house and, as we later found out, could be turned around to be the outside of buildings near a wharf. It was a great set. Meredith commented, “Isn’t it good – Norwegian wood?” I glared at her….

The play was excellent and thought-provoking. My friend Kevin played a don’t-rock-the-boat middle-of-the-road businessman, and he played him with a worried and comic edge that worked very well. Mer’s student Austin played a young radical newspaper reporter who becomes less radical when the town is threatened. Kevin and Austin both did excellent jobs.

Kevin’s former roommate played the lead – the doctor (he had also played Higgins in My Fair Lady). He should have a fine acting career ahead – he was tremendous in the role, which is not an easy one. The doctor is a complex man and a complex role, and the audience ends up loving him and hating him.

After the play, Mer and I stuck around for a “talk-back,” where you can ask questions of the cast and crew. The director had a few remarks to get started, and she mentioned how hard it was to direct Act 5, the last act. So, when the question-time started, I asked her why Act 5 was so hard to direct, when I thought Act 4 was a more problematic act (where the doctor denounces the entire town). She answered that the last line can be seen as triumphant, but she could not go with that. She had tried many different ways to end the play, and she said she still was not convinced how to end it. It was interesting and informative. (Based on thinking about this, I thought the play should end with the doctor desperately clinging to the idea that he alone was right.)

A note to directors: be careful about talk-backs at colleges. I asked a question, and a good one, I thought. After that question, for 25-30 more minutes, the audience (made up of professors and other students) became a series of short lectures on drama and other English works. To the best of our recollections, Mer and I could not remember a single question being asked. It was both amusing and frustrating – I would have liked to have heard from the cast more, and the audience less.

I chatted with the director for a few minutes after the talk-back, and Mer chatted with Austin and Kevin. I did get to congratulate Kevin and Austin, and then we had to head out. We had a sleepy drive home (it was a late Friday, after all), and got home about 1:00. It was worth it – it was a chance to see a great, rarely-done play.