Florian Borchmeyer’s astute adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People is back at Toronto’s Tarragon theatre, with a new twist. The difference this season is that Laura Condlin plays Dr. Stockmann, the central character, rather than Joe Cobden, who was Stockmann in 2014.

Originally created for Berlin’s Schaubühne theatre and now a Toronto hit, Borchmeyer’s adaptation situates the play at the forefront of current politics and midway through the show dares audience members to engage in the show’s Town Hall scene. Rather than detract from Ibsen’s themes, Borchmeyer’s innovations underscore them. Ibsen wrote An Enemy of the People quickly and with broad strokes while in the heat of anger at the public’s adamant rejection of his earlier play, Ghosts. An Enemy of the People became the soapbox upon which Ibsen railed against middle class mores and groupthink.

Considered one of Ibsen’s lesser works, this play tells the story of a doctor, employed by his town’s lucrative health spa, who wants to warn the public that the water piped into the baths is contaminated. Yet, Dr. Stockmann is not a tragic hero but a naïve and ideological loner.

When confronted by his brother (Rick Roberts), a businessman and chair of the spa committee, or by town officials the doctor becomes defensive and arrogant. Stockmann genuinely wants to prevent harm but never takes the pulse of fellow citizens nor the time to learn about their concerns. Penned in two dimensions, Stockmann’s opponents are self-interested rhetoricians who don’t play fair.

Ironically, these generalized depictions are the right form for our age of consumerism, mixed messages, greed, self-interest, misappropriation of truth and environmental degradation. The Tarragon’s production of Borchmeyer’s adaptation is praise-worthy because its staging, evocative design and fine cast mirror disturbing yet noteworthy aspects of this era.

Then why tinker with a show that works? Why switch the gender of the main character?

Condlin says that casting a woman as Dr. Stockman further contemporizes Ibsen’s more-than-a-century-old play. “It puts us right into 2015 to have an outspoken woman scientist on stage”.

A respected Canadian actor, Condlin is an 11-year veteran of the Stratford Festival (Elektra, A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, As You Like it) who frequently performs on Toronto stages (Soulpepper, Canadian Stage). “It didn’t occur to me to prepare the role with a focus on gender”, she states. “The problem is not that it is a woman doctor in the story but that no one wants to have the truth exposed”.

Condlin says her main challenge was to assimilate all her lines, and credits her years at Stratford for her ability to apply solid technique and stamina to perform long classical roles. Then she adds, “What is exciting is that we’ve arrived at a time when an actor can play any type of role. It’s like colour blind casting. The audience interprets what they see on stage.”

However, in An Enemy of the People, we discover that identity is shaped by what we perform as well as by how we’re perceived. What we do defines who we are and influences our effect on our world.

By the end of An Enemy of the People we realize that everyone and anyone can abandon an ethical choice.

An Enemy of the People runs until Nov. 1 in Tarragon’s Mainspace. Click here for more info.