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An Enemy of the People was published on 28 November 1882 and
first performed in Christiania on 13 January 1883. Later on that same year there were
productions in Bergen, Gothenburg, Stockholm, and Copenhagen, and subsequently in Berlin
(1887), Bern (1888), Vienna (1890), and Paris (1893). An Enemy of the People was
staged by the Moscow Art Theatre in 1900, and was the first Ibsen play to be staged by the
Comédie Française — but not until 1921.
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Sketch for the Moscow Art Theatre production, 1900 |
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Donald Sinden as Stockmann in the 1975 Chichester Festival Theatre production
Photo: Reg Wilson
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The London premiere was on 14 June 1893 at the Haymarket, with
Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Stockmann, in a production that later went on tour to America;
Tree revived the play at His Majesty's Theatre in 1905 and again in 1909. Later this
century in London, Roger Livesey played Dr Stockmann at the Old Vic in 1939. In 1974, the
Compagnia di Prosa visited the World Theatre Season at the Aldwych, with Tino Buazzelli as
Dr Stockmann; and in 1988 the Young Vic staged Arthur Miller's 1950 adaptation, with Tom
Wilkinson in the lead.
Outside London, the play is frequently staged — notably at the Chichester Festival
Theatre in 1975, with Donald Sinden as Dr Stockmann. Arthur Miller's version was the basis
of George Shafer's film of An Enemy of the People, starring Steve McQueen and Bibi
Andersson; Satyajit Ray also filmed a version, Ganashatru, in 1989 set in a
contemporary Bengalese town.
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Henrik Ibsen 
The
first production of An Enemy of the People, Christiania, 1883