L ast week I opened a review by calling An Enemy of the People the current Ibsen of choice, given the number of productions and adaptations it’s fostered in Chicago over the last few months. I had no idea how right I was. You know what Lydia R. Diamond’s latest, Smart People, turns out to be? That’s correct.
Still, none of that has sobered him. Au contraire: opprobrium just makes
him double down. Stockmann arrogant and Stockmann strident (Stockmann naive
too, really, though he talks like he’s been wised up), Professor White
doesn’t suffer fools gladly, and it appears to him that Harvard harbors a
surprisingly high number of fools for such a prestigious institution. He
scorns his students and talks, shall we say, impudently to the department
chair, all the while wondering why they can’t comprehend his genius. Along
with everything else, he’s Stockmann blind.
Through 6/10: Wed-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 3 and 7:30 PM, Sun 2 and 6 PM, Tue 7:30 PM, Writers Theatre, 325 Tudor Ct., Glencoe, 847-242-6000, writerstheatre.org, $60-$80.
