Washington Post - Somewhat Recommended
"... Perhaps, too, the choice by Kwei-Armah, Centerstage’s artistic director,to push the play forward in time to 1960 eliminates enough of “An Enemy of the People’s” vintage feel without going overboard with contemporary analogy. This allows the set and costume designers, Riccardo Hernandez and David Burdick, respectively, to apply to the physical production some voguish “Mad Men” elements. (The multiracial casting exudes more freshness.) But the volume of tinkering does become a little self-serving: The display of early TV technology to highlight the way electronic media can amplify the majority’s hysteria proves more distracting than illuminating."
DC Theater Arts - Highly Recommended
"... Without power what good is the truth? To celebrate the opening of its 50th Anniversary Season, CENTERSTAGE presents Arthur Miller’s adaptation of Ibsen’s classic An Enemy of the People. Directed by Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah, this particularly adaptation acts as a lens through which we examine the contemporary media landscape in regards to topical political problems in today’s society. The problems addressed in this production echo soundly to many of the modern issues we see in politics: corruption, the truth of one man’s beliefs verses the betterment of the masses, ignorance in positions of power and so on. Ibsen’s riveting saga pits brother against brother in an effort to save a community from a deadly secret each having their own beliefs as to what constitutes protection. Ultimately turning the town inward upon itself this gripping drama will keep you shocked right through the end."
Baltimore Sun - Somewhat Recommended
"... The production does not overcome the weaker elements in the play, and some aspects of the imaginative staging raise questions (showing clips of the Nixon-Kennedy debates might be a little more compelling if the play weren’t still set in Norway)."
Washington City Paper - Highly Recommended
"... Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, a kind of fable about one man standing up against powerful interests and an easily swayed mob to tell the truth about a Norwegian town’s water system, is often staged in teeth-gnashing fashion. But director Kwame Kwei-Armah has wisely given the current Center Stage production a healthy dose of irreverent humor, and that transforms Ibsen’s play from a stern lecture into a delicious story."
DramaUrge - Highly Recommended
"...Dion Graham as Dr. Stockmann captures the naďveté, exuberance - he's a Peer Gynt kind of a guy - and integrity of his character. He's torn in many directions - Job-like calamities descend on his shoulders in mighty numbers - but his fortitude is fully realized in Mr. Graham's declamatory performance. Kevin Kilner, playing the mayor as a dapper "Mad Men" executive, gives him a sinister charm and a believable degree of rage. Indeed, one of the strengths of the production is its ability to convey wide ranges of emotions in almost conversational tones. Mr. Kilner looks for opportunities to raise the stakes for his character and finds almost all of them."
MD Theatre Guide - Highly Recommended
"...Graham and Kilner played well off each other, pushing every scene to its emotional limits. When Dr. Stockmann realizes that he must stand alone against his brother, the atmosphere on stage is chilling. At the end of the play, Graham brings a powerful honesty to Dr. Stockman’s declarations, “The strongest man in the world is the man who stands most alone,” and “A minority may be right: a majority is always wrong.”"
DCTheatreScene - Highly Recommended
The Sage of Baltimore, H.L. Mencken, said it most succinctly: Democracy is the theory that the people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard. In An Enemy of the People, now playing at Baltimore’s CenterStage, the people of an unnamed Norwegian town, led by their fierce, aggressive mayor Peter Stockmann (Kevin Kilner), sure know what they want. Arthur Miller, riffing on an original script of the same name by Henrik Ibsen, allows us to imagine the consequences: disease, lawsuits, economic ruin.
