An Enemy of the People at BAM Harvey Theater

A battle rages in the city. The drinking water is contaminated but—never mind the opinion of a local expert—there’s a tourism industry to protect. Factions form: to tell or not to tell? Studded with contemporary references (renditions of songs by David Bowie and Gnarls Barkley, an excerpt of the incendiary 2008 political manifesto The Coming Insurrection), Ostermeier’s production brings Ibsen’s dark satire to a boil—and, with help from the people, a solitary whistleblower to his knees.