O.C. THEATER : Message of ‘Enemy of People’ Isn’t Lost on Laguna : Although written in 1882, Ibsen’s tale of a resort threatened by water pollution has clear contemporary implications.

LAGUNA BEACH —  Imagine the Laguna Beach coast infected with a mysterious pollution. Maybe it’s the sewage, maybe something else, but it leaves the oceanside unapproachable. Summer is on, and tourism starts to die, leaving all the shops, galleries, hotels and restaurants gasping.

What would state and city officials do? What would local merchants want them to do--the right and necessary thing, or something less responsible, something that would keep their businesses thriving?

That’s the ethical dilemma at the heart of Henrik Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People,” which is now in revival at the Moulton Theatre. Director Andrew Barnicle keeps Ibsen’s original period intact (we know we’re in the quaint, provincial environs of Norway health resort in the 1880s), but the contemporary implications are clear in almost every step of the Laguna Playhouse’s energized staging.

You don’t have to think of Laguna Beach--you can dwell on any pristine area threatened by environmental or bureaucratic abuse and neglect. “An Enemy of the People” hasn’t lost an ounce of its relevance since Ibsen wrote it in 1882.

Back then, of course, Ibsen was more interested in the nature of the individual, especially when the individual is confronted by the empowered masses (his “compact majority”) actually being manipulated by a small band of leaders.

The iconoclast here is Dr. Stockmann (Gregory Bell), who discovers that the resort’s spa baths are contaminated by hazardous bacteria. He believes his revelation will save the town and he’ll emerge its hero. But once the village leaders find out the costs, both financially and in damaged reputation, they turn on him. His brother (F. Thom Spadaro) heads the ambush.

The doctor, a high-minded but absurdly naive man, gets an epiphany-generating lesson in civic hypocrisy when everyone from the wimpy “independent, liberal-minded” newspaper editor (Will Dalley) to the drunk in the street join those against him.

This production is graced by vivid performances. It may get overheated at times (especially the second act), but Barnicle’s cast can’t be blamed for trying to vitalize what modern audiences may see as a talky, even didactic play.

Bell, one of the ensemble’s two professionals (Spadaro is the other), deftly captures the irony of Dr. Stockmann’s personality. He’s the flawed idealist, the man who dreams of utopia but can’t seem to forget his own importance. After he learns of the poison in the water, he does a little victory dance, fully certain of his savior’s destiny. He refers to the terrible news as his “lucky find.”

The doctor’s later heroics, when he faces down the mob and refuses to abandon his principles, is memorable as much for the integrity of his views as the driving force of his huge ego.

As his chief nemesis, Spadaro gives the brother a detestable political cynicism, and the soft edge of the buffoon. Dalley’s editor is a spineless creature, just as dislikable. Petra, Dr. Stockman’s fiery daughter, is played with intensity by Abigail Rockwell.

Barnicle errs with the town meeting scene that opens the second act. He tries to get us involved by turning on the house lights and having the actors emerge from the lobby. They also do some unnecessary business interacting with people in the front rows.

Instead of bringing us closer, it actually pushes us away. The gambit diminishes the dramatic thrust of the crowd’s violent denunciation of the doctor, giving the scene a contrived air.

But it’s not a crippling error. Besides the capable acting, there’s Jeff Thomson vaguely abstract set, a simple and artful representation of the Stockman home. Thomson’s lighting is also responsive to Ibsen’s play, providing many of the scenes with a burnished glow.

‘An Enemy of the People’

A Laguna Playhouse production of Henrik Ibsen’s play. Directed by Andrew Barnicle. With Aaron Cogan, Marina Dorcy, F. Thom Spadaro, Will Dalley, Gregory Bell, James Jenkins, Brad Bredeweg, Drew Ostrowski, Danny Zahn, Abigail Rockwell, Merle Nicks and Dick Harris. Set and lighting by Jeff Thomson. Costumes by Bary Odom. Sound by David Edwards. Plays Tuesday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m. with 2 p.m. matinees on Saturday and Sunday through Feb. 9. At the Moulton Theatre, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. Tickets: $13 to $18. (714) 494-8021 and (714) 497-9244.