A Trial – After an Enemy of the People @ Lyceum

The incredibly charismatic Wagner Moura, best known for his roles in Narcos and The Secret Agent, takes on the role of Thomas Stockmann in A Trial – After an Enemy of the People, which he co-wrote with Christiane Jathany and Lucas Paraizo. Stockmann discovers that the waters of his Brazilian spa town are contaminated. His brother, whose interests are tied to the town’s prosperity, dismisses the claim.

In this Brazilian version of Ibsen's play, we meet Stockmann in the aftermath: he is being put on trial by the people he tried to protect. “Today there are no longer facts; what’s left are versions. It’s just a staging,” he says, a bleakly contemporary observation.

The most compelling moments are metatheatrical. Moura steps outside the action to comment on his character. In another moment, he waits in the corridor while we follow him onscreen. It is there that Moura becomes a giant of an actor: every nuance of his expression is on display. Danilo Grangheia, as Peter, gives a brilliant performance opposite Moura. Their brotherly rivalry feels genuine, making their conflict feel truthful. Their connection gives the political argument human stakes, while showing how easily denial can turn into accusation and victimhood.

However, Jathany’s direction allows the play to become overly verbose, and some of its verbal energy could have been turned into more action onstage. The arguments about truth, democracy and public opinion are compelling, but are sometimes repeated rather than developed, and even the improvisation can feel like variations on the same point. A local jury of eleven people onstage is a clever idea, but why not involve the entire theatre?

Still, its reflection on truth is timely. Who would have thought Ibsen’s nineteenth-century Norway was already questioning whether the majority is necessarily right? As Thomas Stockmann reminds us, the loudest voices can be the stupidest.

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A Trial –  After The Enemy of the People, Royal Lyceum Theatre, run ended