An Enemy of the People: A New Version by Christopher Hampton

Henrik Ibsen, Christopher Hampton (Translated by)

$16.00

This product is not returnable.

Publication Date: February 26th, 1998

Publisher:

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

ISBN:

9780571194292

Pages:

144

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Description

An Enemy of the People concerns the actions of Doctor Thomas Stockmann, a medical officer charged with inspecting the public baths on which the prosperity of his native town depends. He finds the water to be contaminated. When he refuses to be silenced, he is declared an enemy of the people. Stockmann served as a spokesman for Ibsen, who felt that his plays gave a true, if not always palatable, picture of life and that truth was more important than critical approbation.

About the Author

Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) has been described as 'the father of modern theatre'. Most of his early plays were traditional historical dramas. After 'Peer Gynt', a fairy-tale fantasy in verse, Ibsen wrote the rest of his plays in prose, and came to be regarded as the great Naturalist dramatist.

Christopher Hampton is a highly successful British dramatist. His work for the Royal Court included Total Eclipse (1968) and The Philanthropist (1970). An accomplished linguist, his adaptation include Uncle Vany (1970), Hedda Gabler (1970) and A Doll's House (1971). His best known recent work has been his adaptaion of Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Laclos.

Praise for An Enemy of the People: A New Version by Christopher Hampton

“An unequivocal triumph.” —Times Literary Supplement (London)

“Christopher Hampton's new version of the text is also a revelation . . . An Enemy of the People has been reborn as a passionate current debate about the value of the individual . . . The dust has been blown off the original text, and it will not settle for a long time . . . There is a vitality, vehemence and victory here against the odds.” —Spectator (London)

“More than any revival of Ibsen's plays I've seen, it creates a sense of place vital to the theme . . . An Enemy of the People is little short of superb, for it gives us both a big, rich, public play and the private drama of two men locked in rivalry that probably goes back to the playpen . . . You want an unforgettable picture of the idealist at his most necessary yet impossible? Here it is.” —The Times (London)