An Enemy of the People

The vital Crucible has reopened. Daniel Evans , the new artistic director, takes over a sleeker building, adorned with foyer benches that speak when you sit on them. His first production might be a mission statement: An Enemy of the People pits one man against the crowd. Still, the glory of Ibsen's 1882 play – bold in structure, serpentine in argument – lies in not glorifying its hero. Christopher Hampton's subtle translation emphasises that this principled man could be a dangerous authoritarian. Antony Sher, is at his wilful best as the whistle-blower: pink and beetling and obsessional; even his good humour has an alarming edge. Not all the production is so meticulously realised: the stage is too bright for small-town claustrophobia and too full of running folk. But Ben Stones's design, a weathered clapboard house, is suggestive, and Ibsen's questions, among them, whether newspaper editors should be led by readers' opinions, ring out forcefully.