Henrik Ibsen, the 19th-century Norwegian playwright, is having a mini moment right now.

His “Wild Duck” is on stage at the Shakespeare Theatre in the District and a new film version of his “Hedda Gabler” is streaming on Prime Video, while Theater J, the Edlavitch DCJCC’s theater-in-residence, opened its 2025-26 season with the playwright’s “An Enemy of the People.”

Is the play Jewish? Honestly, no. There’s nary a menorah or mezuzah amid the background clutter that populates Maruti Evans’ set. While there are a pair of candleholders on the dining table, nothing else suggests Shabbat.

But, adapted by New Jersey-based Jewish playwright Amy Herzog for the 2024 Broadway season, “Enemy,” written in 1882, feels a relevant today as at its debut. And Herzog is no stranger to Theater J. Her semi-autobiographical family play, “After the Revolution,” ran there in 2013.

Ibsen’s plot remains relevant, especially in Washington. The playwright hones in on whistleblower Thomas Stockmann who faces down his brother, his friends, the media, his entire town when he discovers an impending environmental disaster, speaking truth to power. But at what cost?

Hungarian theater and film director János Szász brings a European flair to Theater J’s production, including a movement theater sequence that opens the play, a Brechtian Act 2 that breaks that theatrical “fourth wall,” and continuous action on stage, even during intermission.

Set in a white tiled room that serves as the Stockmann home but resembles both a public bathroom and a medical exam room in its harsh brightness, various actors divide and reveal the space by drawing back an oversized translucent shower curtain. Set and lighting designer Maruti Evans leans into a dichotomous aesthetic of old-fashioned bathroom sinks and tubs and hyper-modern media accoutrements, including a bank of video monitors providing a constant feed of images designed by Mark Costello.

Stockmann – Joey Collins in a compelling and an athletic performance – propels the play forward like a marathoner running for his life. The doctor is putting finishing touches on a research paper that he is convinced will prevent a deadly catastrophe. He’s discovered that the local natural baths, which draw tourists who fill the town’s coffers, are contaminated and must be shut down to save lives. With the COVID-19 pandemic still fresh in memory for most of us, thoughts of masks, boycotts, Dr. Fauci and millions of lost lives readily come to mind.

However, Thomas’ brother and town mayor Peter (the formidable Edward Gero) and a newspaper editor (played by Aaron Bliden) lead a campaign against the doctor’s findings. By Act 2, director Szász takes this argument to the people, literally. For a town hall meeting, the house lights come up and each of the principals in this debate addresses the audience directly. We become the townspeople while the actors, including one wielding a cell phone camera for recording the action, navigate the theater, sitting alongside audience members, commenting and challenging viewers to engage in this critical exercise. What’s more important: the physical heath of spa patrons and townspeople or the financial health of the town and its business owners?

Clocking in at about two hours and 20 minutes, “An Enemy of the People” toggles between compelling and didactic, at times overly so. And, yet, the plot and argument that Ibsen put to page, then stage, 143 years ago remains as fresh as the headlines, tweets and reels that inundate news junkies today. Today as yesterday, corporate greed can overshadow societal health and well-being across all facets of society.

Interestingly, this is not the first time Theater J tackled Ibsen’s environmental play. In 2013, “Boged,” the Hebrew word for “traitor,” reimagined Ibsen’s allegory to reflect environmental and societal decay in modern Israel. Adapted by Israeli playwrights Boaz Gaon and Nir Erez, that work, too, examined the real-life disaster of ecological contamination, but occurring in southern Israel at the hands of greedy corporate and government officials. The premise drew on the actual development of Ramat Hovav Industrial Park outside of Be’er Sheva, a project supposedly in service to the call from Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, to “make the desert bloom” and draw people into less-populated southern Israel.

We know Ibsen was raised a devout Lutheran, but as the first modernist playwright, he focused on morality and humanism. His works wrestled with religious and moral hypocrisy, elevating truth over lies, highlighting consequences of amoral behavior across generations, examining the individual’s conflict with communal societal expectations, and, even in the 19th century, overturning traditional expectations of women’s roles.

Turn to our Jewish foundational texts – the Tanach and the Talmud. What Ibsen explored in the 19th century have been elemental issues for millennia that our Jewish ancestors confronted. And they remain relevant for Jewish people today. Jews continue to return to our ancient texts for answers to contemporary problems, just as today’s theatergoers continue to discover Ibsen’s works as a mirror reflecting the modern conflicts we face.

“An Enemy of the People” runs through Nov. 23, Theater J of Edlavitch DCJCC, 1529 16th St., NW, Washington, D.C. Single tickets start at $69. Discounted tickets available for EDCJCC members, students, educators, military personnel, U.S. veterans and recipients of EBT. For information or tickets, call 202-777-3210 or visit theaterj.org.

Lisa Traiger is Washington Jewish Week’s award-winning arts correspondent.