When I heard that the prolific, amazing Alex Richardson was updating the 1882 Henrik Ibsen play “An Enemy of the People” to a tighter, slimmer, modern version – addressing science, disease, truth, corruption, adultery and journalism – I briefly wondered if there would be a spin on one of Donald Trump’s endlessly repeated lies, the press as the real enemy of the people. That phrase is surprisingly not uttered in the utterly absorbing, thought-provoking “Enemy of the People” at the new Mockingbird on Main in downtown Davenport, but Richardson has made the taut drama (with good doses... Read More

For the second fully staged production at Mockingbird on Main, 320 N. Main St., Davenport, Q-C playwright Alexander Richardson has taken a sprawling 19th-century play by Henrik Ibsen, slimmed it down and modernized it. The 27-year-old East Moliner – who’s been writing plays for almost a decade – slashed the 1882 “An Enemy of the People” from five acts and 30 characters (stretched across three hours), to just five characters and one act, across about 80 minutes. In the story, a doctor realizes that the new expansion for his town’s factory is releasing toxins into the town’s... Read More