An Enemy of the People - Duke of York's Theatre

Saw this tonight, enjoyed a lot of it, especially everything Paul Hilton related.

Some spoilers follow. . .

The set in the first half is some kind of Brechtian thing, hard lit despite no visible skylight, with all sorts of revolutionary graffiti on the walls, the least appealing of which was an exhortation to kill the Buddha (too chill I suppose).

The blocking also doesn't lend itself to a believable intimacy among the characters some of the time. I recall how lovely the intimacy was in Jessica Brown Findlay's Hamlet, where she played Ophelia opposite Andrew Scott, and the two of them together just won my heart. Could have used a bit more believable humanity, a bit less Brecht, as I feel you've got to really buy the humanity before it gets threatened by the plot, even if you suddenly go Brechtian later (which it does, very effectively).

On that human note, I really loved Vilberg Andri Palsson, standing in for the indisposed Zachary Hart as Billing, a character I haven't really paid attention to in the past: his earphones-on, gentle, vacant, morally-malleable long-hair was spot on recognisable from every student common room everywhere lol.

I like music, and the live music did serve to humanise the characters somewhat, even as it slowed down the plot. I wished Matt Smith would sing his "American Psycho" numbers instead though, but that's just me (I loved that production so much lol!)

This production has an embarrassment of good acting talent, so Nigel Lindsay as a capitalist ghoul and Priyanka Burford as a compromised liberal are good fun.

But it's Paul Hilton's antagonist, Peter Stockmann, who really stood out for me: the weaselly gelatinous jibbering of a Jacob Rees Mogg contained beneath a steely, aggressive Dominic Raab surface. Hilton makes every scene he's in come alive, regardless of the staging.

Matt Smith rules in the second half, especially when he gets Hulk angry. Never having attended a political event, it makes me realise why people do it, the lure and electricity of being shouted at.

Anyhow, against a witty comment from a probable plant, many members of the audience did pipe up in the interactive bit, which used mics, and involved comments from all areas of the theatre. I know they were real cos they failed to address what speech they were actually reacting to, and just got indignant about the plot instead.

The Duke of York is probably a bit too boxy and claustrophobic for really exciting staging involving audiences. I remember how, at Chichester, Hugh Bonneville got quite a work-out running up and down those broad, diagonal aisles, visible to all. But even if he is constrained physically, Smith nails the emotions.

Anyhow, I think this will bed into a 4 star show, but at this early stage, it's more like 3 and a half stars.

PS: The front 3 rows (AA, BB, A) got given Macintoshes in the interval to protect them from possible (washable) paint splashes. There weren't any major splashes tonight, but there could have been.