Ein Volksfeind

Tomas Stockmann is right. But that doesn’t do him much good. He has discovered that the water at the local spa is contaminated and is demanding that the facility be renovated. However, the spa is the local tourist attraction and brings in money. Revealing the truth about the toxic water would cause enormous damage to the town, and the renovation would be expensive and time-consuming: What is to be done? Using this dilemma as a starting point, Ibsen meticulously illustrates in his social drama how a simple truth gets caught up in the maelstrom of social dynamics, power struggles, and self-interest, in which both the truth and its defender gradually go under. Stockmann’s initial euphoria over his discovery and the encouragement from his friends and family gradually fade in the face of the pressure his brother, the mayor, is mounting against him. The press—which was initially on Stockmann’s side—must yield to the mayor’s power and arguments, leaving Stockmann increasingly isolated until, in the end, he defiantly and alone rails against the entire city.

Using an environmental scandal as a backdrop, Ibsen explores the questions regarding the value of truth—questions that have become increasingly pressing to this day. Sapir Heller takes Stockmann’s story one step further: after the climax of Ibsen’s drama, we find ourselves alongside Stockmann in a hall of mirrors filled with increasingly uncertain variations of the supposed truth.