Dr. Thomas Stockmann has a dilemma. He resides in a Norwegian town where a new public spa is proving prosperous for its citizens, but Stockmann has discovered that the water in those baths is toxic. Complicating matters all the more: His brother, Peter, is the mayor and in full support of the spa.

To blow the whistle or not to blow the whistle?

That’s the premise of Henrik Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People,” one of two dozen plays written by the second most produced playwright in the world after Shakespeare. The title is ironical and predictive. In calling, on behalf of his fellow townspeople, attention to the toxicity of the baths, Stockmann finds himself the target of derision, even hatred.

“An Enemy of the People” was written in 1882, but its parallels to today are chilling.

“It has a whistle blower, fake news and a pandemic. Shifty politicians and warnings about climate change,” says Richard Baird, artistic director of New Fortune Theatre Company, which is staging Scottish playwright David Harrower’s contemporary, 90-minute adaptation of Ibsen’s five-act play, titled “Public Enemy.”

“It’s also a play about someone being ‘canceled,’” said Baird. “There are so many headlines to grab from.”

New Fortune’s production inside Westminster Presbyterian Church in Point Loma is the West Coast premiere of “Public Enemy” and only the fourth staging of Harrower’s adaptation. Its world premiere was in 2013 at the Young Vic in London, followed by a production in Singapore in 2015 and at the Pearl Theatre in New York in 2016.

Baird is directing and starring as Stockmannm with Nick Kennedy as his brother, the mayor, New Fortune co-founder Amanda Schaar as Stockmann’s wife, Katrine, and a cast that also includes Danny Campbell, Walter Murray and Trevor Cruse.

“The original (‘An Enemy of the People’) and this version ask the question ‘When does activism become fanaticism?’” said Baird. “The play really messes with your allegiances.”

“An Enemy of the People” may be less known and less frequently produced than other Ibsen works such as “Hedda Gabler,” A Doll’s House” and “Peer Gynt.” It was last produced in San Diego in 2012 by the now-defunct Intrepid Shakespeare Company.

Harrower’s “Public Enemy” takes Ibsen’s sweeping play and condenses it into a series of 15-minute acts.

“It really does follow the (original) play in a lot of ways,” explained Baird. “Whatever’s on stage is there because it has to be there.”

The modern setting is one that predates cellphones or the internet, but, said Baird, “it’s a community where things like newspapers and letters matter.”

Baird pointed out that author Peter Benchley once drew a parallel between Ibsen’s tale and his blockbuster novel “Jaws.”

Both have a threat in the water, a whistle blower, a cluster of deniers. Both portray a struggle between the salvation of a community and its commercial interests. In fact, Ellen Rees and Thor Holt of the Center for Ibsen Studies in Oslo, Norway, published an article to this effect just last year titled “Entanglements of adaptation, allegory and reception: ‘Jaws’ and ‘An Enemy of the People.’”

The divided interests in “Public Enemy” are at the heart of the play, and Baird expects audiences to be debating them.

“It does play with your loyalties,” he said. “I think that’ll be the conversation a lot of people will be having. Who was right?”

‘Public Enemy’

When: Opens Saturday and runs through July 2. Showtimes, 7 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays

Where: Westminster Presbyterian Church, 3598 Talbot St., Point Loma

Tickets: $10-$30

Phone: (602) 380-3706

Online: newfortunetheatre.com