ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE
PITTSBURGH PUBLIC THEATRE By Henrik Ibsen New version by Amy Herzog Director Marya Sea Kaminski Scenic Design Chelsea M. Warren Lighting Design L.B. Morse Sound Design Erin Bednarz Costume Design Hugh Hanson Fight & Intimacy Director José Pérez IV Assistant Director Evelyn Walker Production Photography Maranie R. Staab
critical response below
Pittsburgh Tatler, Wendy Arons: “Chelsea Warren’s scenic design evokes both the beauty of the Norwegian landscape and the spareness of Nordic design, and, like the play’s protagonist, it undergoes a profound transformation, from a comfortable, welcoming parlor in the first scene to a lonely space wrecked by violence at play’s end. It’s a design that also never lets you forget the ecosystem that gets lost in the characters’ conflict over whose narrative of “truth” will win out.”
Pittsburgh Quarterly, Stuart Sheppard: “Chelsea M. Warren’s set utilizes a thrust stage set at an oblique angle – a clear sign that something is off in the world of this small Norwegian town that we are about to enter. As the action centers on the fate of a spa and baths located here, the set contains water on both sides, which may or may not be polluted with harmful chemicals leached by tanning factories located nearby. It’s a proto-Erin Brockovich scenario, with the town’s ethical doctor, Thomas Stockmann (MJ Sieber), having discovered this contamination, pitted against the nefarious interests of those who benefit financially from the continued operation of the ultimately toxic spa...But perhaps the most fascinating and successful aspects of this production are the cinematic conceits explored by Ms. Sea Kaminski, the director, specifically in how she deals with time. She utilizes multiple “freeze-frame” moments, when the cast is frozen in tableaux, emphasizing the impact of key turns in the action. Even more compelling, however, she leaves exiting characters around the stage, still visible to the audience, in some cases sitting passively, in others engaged in some small task before them like reading — thus achieving a duality of time, as if we can peer into hidden moments of their lives that move in a slower pace than the proceedings on stage.”
OnStage Pittsburgh, Sharon Eberson: “The scenic design by Chelsea M. Warren reflects man vs. nature, Nordic minimalism meets the water’s edge. Two angled basins filled with water, one with a working, golden faucet, flank the thrust stage, while the four corners serve as nooks for the actors, who are always in play, living their lives, before they meet in the middle and bump heads.”
Pgh Lesbian Correspondents: “The stage was lovely – a room surrounded by water presumably the springs. Petra fills a basin with a tap, implying the family has been exposed to typhoid. The actors were not off stage so much as carrying out their daily lives in the background.”