Matt Smith says new play causes audience arguments

Audience members have been left in tears, walked out halfway through and had "full-blown" arguments with each other, Matt Smith has told the BBC of his new play.

The Doctor Who actor is starring in a new production of Henrik Ibsen's 1882 drama, An Enemy of the People.

During the play, audiences are invited to participate in a townhall discussion and ask "whatever they want".

The FT called it a "brilliant idea that drives home the resonance of the play".

However, she added that the section "could be longer and riskier".

The play centres around a medical officer who discovers that the water in his town's spa is contaminated. He decides to speak up about the truth, but his community attempt to silence him as it is not in their interest for this to be exposed.

Speaking to the BBC after the opening night of the show, Smith said he was drawn to this classic play because "the idea of the audience being able to participate has always appealed to me".

"I really want people to come and engage, put their hands up and say whatever they want to," added The Crown star.

The audience's questions, which are entirely unscripted, have already ruffled a few feathers, and Smith said he has witnessed audience arguments, walk-outs and tears.

In her three-star review, she said there was "no room for real debate or danger" and that the "the targets of the play's actual critique feels frustratingly vague".

However, he praised Smith for his performance and noted he was a "natural fit for the role of Dr Stockmann" and "gleams with authority" throughout.

The 41-year-old actor "turns from rebel to self-appointed guru and shows how the truth-teller can himself become corrupted", according to the Guardian's Arifa Akbar.

"His tirade on everything from the postmaster scandal to food banks swings between talking truth to power and loony conspiracy," she wrote in her four-star review.

However, she added that "not all of it works", referencing various scenes which are brushed over and characters that lack development.

Speaking on the relevance of the play today, Smith told the BBC "there is a sort of universality to it that stands the test of time" and raises questions about truth. "How do you quantify it? Who's telling the truth? If you're undermining it, does it then dilute it?"

Director Thomas Ostermeier, whose play marks his West End debut, added that he wanted to "promote the idea of how important it is to speak up and even though there are different forces that will try to silence you, you need courage to speak up".

There was a five-star review from Louise Griffin of the Radio Times, who praised Smith for his performance and said his "shining moment" was a "monologue that single-handedly will prompt standing ovation".

"An Enemy of the People is full of contradictions that somehow work," she continued. "It's incredibly serious and incredibly funny, it's messy and meticulous, with characters that are simultaneously moral and morally corrupt."

She also praised other characters including Priyanga Burford who, as Aslaksen, leads the audience questions.

"She easily navigates a sequence that could (and probably will at some point) go badly wrong with humour, tenacity, and incredibly quick wits," Griffin wrote.

Paul Hilton, who plays Smith's onstage brother who is mayor of the town, was also praised for his performance.

"Hilton is excellent as the establishment brother and their sibling tensions are well caught: they regress into angry little boys when they fight," write Akbar in The Guardian.

Clive Davis of The Times said Hilton "outshone" Smith and brings "a snarl to Stockmann's establishment-minded brother".

He only awarded the show two stars overall, however, writing: "Ostermeier's sophomoric attempt to drag the Norwegian playwright into the 21st century is so clumsy it might almost be part of some sinister conservative plot to kill off left-wing theatre once and for all.

"The big query rattling around in my mind," he concluded, "was who would pay £175 or more for a stalls seat just to call for the end of capitalism as we know it."

Smith last performed in the West End in 2019 in the Old Vic's production of climate change drama Lungs alongside Claire Foy.

The pair also starred alongside each other in the first two series of Netflix's The Crown.