An Enemy of the People (A Play in Five Acts) (CD-ROM Edition of a Drama written in the late Nineteenth Century) Review

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An Enemy of the People (A Play in Five Acts) (CD-ROM Edition of a Drama written in the late Nineteenth Century) ReviewHenrik Ibsen is the father of modern drama and his 1882 drama "An Enemy of the People" ("En folkefiende") was one of his more controversial works. In the play Dr. Stockmann discovers that the new baths built in his town are infected with a deadly disease that requires they should be closed until they can be repaired. However, the mayor of the town (the Burgomaster), who is Stockmann's brother Peter, rejects the report and refuses to close the baths because it will bring about the financial ruin of the town. When Dr. Stockmann tries to make his case to the people of the town, the mayor counters by pointing out how expensive it would be to repair the baths and dismisses the doctor for having wild, fanciful ideas. At the public meeting Dr. Stockmann is declared "an enemy of the people" by the Burgomaster.
To really appreciate this particular Ibsen play you have to look at it in the context of his previous dramas, because they all represent a conflict between the playwright and his critics. In 1879 Ibsen's play "A Doll's House" ("Et dukkehjem") was produced, wherein the character of Nora pretends to be a silly little wife in order to flatter her husband, who is revealed to be a hypocritical fraud. The idea that a woman would leave her husband and children was seen as being outrageous and basically obscene. Ibsen upset his audience and critics even more in his next play, "Ghosts" ("Gengangere"), an 1881 drama that again attacks conventional morality and hypocrisy. The topic is of congenital venereal disease but the true subject is moral contamination. Mrs. Alving has buried her husband, a degenerate who has left behind a son dying from syphilis and an illegitimate daughter who is probably going to end up being a prostitute. The play ends with Mrs. Alving having to decide if she should poison her son to put him out of his misery or let his agonies persist.
Again, Ibsen was attacked for outraging conventional morality. The following year after "Ghosts" the playwright responded with "An Enemy of the People" and the character that is most identified with representing Ibsen on stage in Dr. Stockmann. The allegory is quite plain when the play is considered within the context of Ibsen's work during this period, although while Stockmann is portrayed as a victim there is a sense of destructiveness to his behavior. At the end of the play Stockman has decided to leave the town, but then changes his mind to stay and fight for those things he believes are right.
As is the case with most of Ibsen's classic works, "An Enemy of the People" speaks to larger issues than those in conflict in the play. The debate is over the bad water pipes at the new baths, but the true conflict is over the clash of private and public morality. Dr. Stockmann is by far the most idealistic of Ibsen's characters, and that fact that he is opposed by his own brother, the Burgomaster, harkens back to Genesis and the fight between Cain and Able. As was the case with "Ghosts," there is an ambiguous ending where what happens next can be seen as going either way given your own inclinations as a member of the audience.
Both of the Stockman brothers are flawed. Dr. Stockman's idealism is at odds with the practical realities of the world in which he lives while the Burgomaster ignores ethical concerns. Ultimately, Ibsen is not forcing us to choose between the two but rather to reject both in terms of some middle ground. The Burgomaster is certainly old school, believing those in authority get to make all the decisions and that the people must subordinate themselves to the society. But he was the one who made the mistake of putting the new water pipes in the wrong place, so even his claims that he is looking out for the welfare of the community are dishonest. Dr. Stockman argues for individual freedom and the right of free expression, but his attempt to fix the problem ignores any effort at persuasion or building public support. He also seems to take pleasure in be able to show that his brother made a mistake. Still, in the end we have to favor the doctor over the mayor because his integrity is clearly stronger, while still recognizing that his idealism is tragically flawed.An Enemy of the People (A Play in Five Acts) (CD-ROM Edition of a Drama written in the late Nineteenth Century) Overview

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The True Memoirs of Little K: A Novel Review

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The True Memoirs of Little K: A Novel ReviewBallet fanatics like myself generally possess not only worn toe shoes signed by favorite dancers and piles of old theatrical programs, but a whole library on the subject --- from biographies to encyclopedias, criticism to coffee-table books. Ballet novels, however, are rare, and good ones even rarer. Among my favorites are Rumer Godden's A CANDLE FOR ST. JUDE, Colum McCann's DANCER (in which he reimagines Nureyev's life), and a few gems for kids (notably Noel Streatfeild's marvelous Shoes books).
THE TRUE MEMOIRS OF LITTLE K is Adrienne Sharp's third foray into ballet-themed fiction; her previous works include a short-story collection, WHITE SWAN, BLACK SWAN, and a novel set in the dance-crazed 1980s, THE SLEEPING BEAUTY. I must confess that I wasn't thrilled by the first two. Although the balletic details were fun and gossipy, I found the narrative and characters rather melodramatic. But here Sharp explores her fascination with dance through the lens of history, giving us prerevolutionary Russia from the perspective of Mathilde Kschessinska, prima ballerina assoluta at St. Petersburg's Maryinsky Theatre.
The setting, for a balletomane, is iconic: the wondrous era in which many of today's classics --- from Swan Lake to Le Corsaire, Don Quixote to Nutcracker --- were created and feats like the Black Swan's 32 fouettés first accomplished (Kschessinska learned how to do them from the Italian ballerinas who dominated the Russian dance scene at the time). Storied choreographers, composers and impresarios like Petipa, Tchaikovsky and Diaghilev people the pages of this novel, and backstage politicking abounds. In order to sabotage a rival, Kschessinska --- a born diva --- once let live chickens loose on stage!
Kschessinska was a survivor. She escaped revolutionary Russia and wound up in Paris, where she had a school (she taught such ballet luminaries as Alicia Markova, Andre Eglevsky and Margot Fonteyn); in 1971, before her death at 99, she wrote her memoirs. Sharp's book, based on this autobiography and other historical sources, is written entirely in the aged ballerina's voice (by turns ambitious, greedy, vain, calculating, tender and romantic). It focuses on her years as a student and then as star of the Imperial Ballet; it merely sketches her life in exile. In the end, THE TRUE MEMOIRS OF LITTLE K isn't really about ballet as such, though there are some piquant details (for example, performers then wore corsets and wigs on stage --- heaven forbid that they should show their real hair, a private thing --- as well as the lavish jewelry given to them by admirers). It is about a woman caught up in one of the most turbulent political upheavals of the 20th century.
Essentially, it is the story of the Russian revolution viewed from inside the tsarist court, for ballerinas at that time customarily had aristocratic "patrons," and promotions at the Maryinsky Theatre were clearly ruled by royalty, not solely by artistic directors. Thus, Kschessinska --- who had an intermittent but long-term affair with the man who became the last tsar, Nicholas II --- is able to maintain her preeminence not simply through her talent but by working her powerful connections.
While Sharp evinces a certain fondness for the grandeur and tradition of Old Russia, she makes it clear that the tsarist regime dug its own grave through arrogance, corruption and an unwillingness to make any sort of democratic concessions. Overshadowing the entire novel is the ultimate fate of the tsar and his family (they were sent to Siberia and executed, a grisly event you might remember from popular books and films such as Nicholas and Alexandra and Anastasia). Reading it is a bit like watching a slow-motion train wreck, or a fictionalized version of a term paper: "Causes of the Russian Revolution."
In the first half of the book, I often felt that Sharp was laboring to use every scrap of her research. The background material tends to crowd and encumber the narrative (besides, it's hard to believe that a 99-year-old woman would have total recall). Why would Kschessinska describe the wintertime balls given in St. Petersburg, down to descriptions of the floral arrangements and servants' uniforms? Why would she know or care to mention that 130,000 soldiers were involved in summer maneuvers? Sharp's accounts of such turning points as the "Bloody Sunday" massacre of 1905 are gripping, but they seem like set-pieces, disconnected from Kschessinska's intimate recollections.
As THE TRUE MEMOIRS OF LITTLE K proceeds, however, Sharp becomes more successful at integrating history and fiction. At the heart of the book is the love story between "Niki," as Kschessinska calls the tsar, and "Little K" (his nickname for her). Thus, when he marries the German princess Alexandra, she feels like the "poor girl" of several classical ballet plots (Giselle; La Bayadère) who is thrown over in favor of an aristocratic bride. (She takes her revenge by comparing her figure to the less athletic tsarina's: "Well, of course, I had not had four children and I was a dancer --- an occupation that preserves the body better than a dip in formaldehyde.") But Kschessinska isn't cut out for victimhood. Needing protectors, she attaches herself to Nicholas's cousins, the Grand Dukes Sergei and Andrei; she even draws the tsar himself back to her bed for a brief coda to their affair and bears a son, Vova (although in the novel the child is supposed to be Nicholas's, leading to dramatic plot complications, the historical evidence for this assumption is shaky, as she was not exactly a one-man woman).
Kschessinska grows on the reader. Her toughness and strong will come to the fore when she is tested by the chaos of the revolutionary years, and she evolves from a naïve, flirtatious maiden infatuated with celebrity and her royal connections into a world-weary woman honed by tragedy and motherhood. Just as Russia's character is an ambiguous mix of East and West --- part credulous, earthy peasant; part refined, elegant European --- so is Kschessinska's, and her acerbic, tell-it-like-it-is voice is Sharp's finest accomplishment. Here's my favorite passage: Disparaging the younger generation of Russian dancers, Kschessinska calls Anna Pavlova's famous solo The Dying Swan "mawkish" and adds smugly, "I've outlived her, you know."
So she had. And you can't help yelling, "Brava!"
--- Reviewed by Kathy Weissman
The True Memoirs of Little K: A Novel Overview

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