In 1939, the critic James Agate called Ibsen's Enemy of the People "a rather dreary parable about a lot of pump water" that happened to have become "intensely exciting" because of the prewar debate about democracy and dictatorship.
Written in 1882, the play questions whether the will of the people is always right and whether it's possible for one independent thinker to be justified even if no one else agrees with him. When a small-town physician, Dr Stockmann, discovers the local spa is polluted, he is branded an enemy of the people by those who depend on it for their livelihoods. Ibsen shows how readily the press and government swing behind the network of vested interests even at the risk of condoning a health hazard.
Agate was wrong because such themes will resonate in any social setting. In our own terms, Stockmann is the whistleblower suffering the wrath of the corporation; the mayor is the politician being nobbled by a pressure group; and the townsfolk are the "solid majority" who sustain our dumbed-down culture.
For Jatinder Verma - artistic director of Tara Arts, the company behind this production - the play speaks about the India of the 1880s, where the influence of British colonial rule adds to the tensions in a town whose "tank" is in danger of spreading a plague. Verma changes the names, re-creates the world of the caste system and sets aside the stuffy naturalism associated with Ibsen for an uncluttered design and primary-coloured performances.
It is a lively approach, but the cartoon chirpiness of the acting quickly becomes wearing and diminishes the serious nature of the argument on both sides. It's typical of the production that Robert Mountford, as the renamed Dr Somnath, is sweet-tempered and likable, but not contemptuous. Without his Coriolanus-like egotism, and without serious intellectual opposition, the politics are less subtle and the conflict is too clear-cut.
· Until Saturday. Box office: 0141-429 0022. Then touring.
