Tom Isbell, a professor of theatre, aims to speak towards social justice in his adaptation of  “An Enemy of the People” showing on Nov. 7 to 10 and Nov. 12 to 16 at the Dudley Experimental Theatre.

As a scientist discovers contaminated water in his town, trouble arises when the Mayor stops him from telling the public; it’s a play that illustrates the conflict between jobs and the environment while circulating the idea of self-interest versus the greater good. Relevant to today’s environmental and political issues, this production will bring the audience to question the system and their own actions. 

“An Enemy of the People” was written in 1882 by Henrik Ibsen, often referred to as “Father of Realism”. Despite its early publications, Isbell’s adapted to modernized language. 

“I tried to make the language really accessible to 2019 so it feels timeless,” Isbell said. 

Isbell, formally a professional actor and playwright, is now a professor at UMD primarily teaching acting classes and directing. His past professions shape his creative vision in this new adaptation as he makes the protagonist an idealistic college student.

“What you get is this collision of beliefs and arguments,” Isbell said. “You have this college student who we’re rooting for and she's running up against this male authority figure who does not want to hear it, and I just think there is such identification with that.” 

The protagonist, Petra, is played by Rachel Williams, a senior studying theatre at UMD.

“Something that the show focuses on is the impact that the silent majority has,” Williams said. “It’s something that we all feel comfortable being in, but it’s something we shouldn’t strive to be in. The call to arms is just thinking for yourself, being a free thinker, standing for what you believe in.”  

There is great influence in theatre as this production is more than a work of art. It’s a call of arms, a display of explicit conflicts, therefore projects inquiry onto oneself. 

“In a way, it humanizes a lot of problems,” Williams said. “I hope my character influences people by inspiring them to ask questions, and not take what the authority says as an answer.” 

The production team is completely made up of UMD students excluding the director. The passion and effort from the students is telling in itself. 

 “It is an honor to be in that room every night, it’s fun and inspiring,” Isbell said. 

There is mutual confidence between the director and the student actors.“Tom did a really good job of saying both sides of the argument so it’s nice that I can just trust the words that are being spoken,” Williams said.

The play will take place in the Dudley Experimental Theatre, where the audience will be seated all around the stage. The audiences’ perception of this type of environment was a conscious decision made by the production team. 

“I really wanted to emphasize the sense of the trial,” Isbell said. “We’re on trial. Our belief system is on trial. My hope is that we as the audience are a jury. I’ve got to make a decision about this.”

The fascination of this play lies in the fact that it is a beam balancing two different ideals: protecting and helping the environment at the cost of jobs, or continuing to work towards a utopia of economic growth at the loss of our planet.

“The question I want to pose is, is our system working?” Isbell said. “Is our democracy working? If we can do this to the environment and get away with it. What is the priority? How do we find the balance?”

A total of 10 showings, the play will be available for all UMD students for free with a valid UMD ID. Open to the public with tickets starting at $20 for seniors, UMD staff, faculty or veteran and $25 for adults.