An Enemy of the People: Hugh Bonneville on mission to expose lies

Newspaper critics have high praise for Hugh Bonneville's latest performance as a champion of truth.

The actor, best known for his portrayal of Lord Grantham in Downton Abbey, plays the lead role of Dr Stockmann in an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People at Chichester Festival Theatre.

Dr Stockmann discovers that the popular local spa is using poisoned water, but struggles to convince his brother, the mayor, that the site should be closed for cleansing and rebuilding.

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The play examines the intricate workings of power and influence, where even the liberal press dare not print the facts.

"In a finely judged performance, Bonneville presents us with an egoist who initially has right on his side but whose faith in the untrammelled will eventually lead to self-delusion," says Michael Billington at The Guardian.

The actor brings an "oak-strong robustness" to the role, says Dominic Cavendish at the Daily Telegraph.

"Bonneville gives a serviceable sense of the fraught journey of an upright citizen who takes it as read that the facts will speak for themselves and is aghast to discover he's expected to lie for the common good," says Cavendish.

Bonneville's reading is "no match" for Ian McKellen's 1997 performance, adds the critic, but: "I can't quarrel with a casting decision that brings this play into the public eye at a time when, whether it's online or in politics, news about NHS whistle-blowers or debates about Brexit, issues surrounding free speech and group-think are topically – and technologically – pressing."

The Sun's Ben Perrin points out that the "truth and who deserves to hear it" is an age-old question as relevant today as when Henrik Ibsen posed it in 1882.

"No one does more than Bonneville to expose the poisonous, corrupting nature of secrets and lies," says Perrin, "and, given the choice to make up their own minds, the public will give this performance a hearty thumbs up."