Had Henrik Ibsen been alive today, Public Enemy would be a play fostered by the Royal Court's international writers programme and would probably be debuting at the Jerwood upstairs. There is a certain irony to the fact that the themes he explores are as pertinent today as they were when they were written in 1882 - is there any change in progress?

In Public Enemy - a version by David Harrower with the title changed from Ibsen's Enemy of the People - Dr Stockman discovers that his beloved home town's money-spinning spa is in fact toxic. He thinks people will be grateful of his discovery and initially has support from the local businesses and newspaper but when they realise that exposure of the problem will destroy the cash cow, for a couple of years at least until expensive repairs are made, their support wains.

It is on one level a deeply political play. The Mayor and the council rushed through the spa development putting short term economic gain ahead of longer term moral duty. It is democracy that leans heavily toward an oligarchy with undue influence and power.

On the other it is about one man's fight to expose the truth but in doing so risks his family and livelihood. An idealist he slowly becomes obsessed and disillusioned, fixated on his rights as an individual resorting to political and philosophical rants.