Kieran Hurley's reworking of Ibsen's 19th-century political drama An Enemy Of The People depicts a corrupted and compromised society. A local politician is willing to endanger public health in order to protect their public image; a journalist abandons their belief in speaking 'truth to power' when confronted with their own misogynistic behaviour; even the public itself is reduced to a thuggish mob that uses social media to threaten our protagonist when she challenges the official narrative.

The Enemy offers a pessimistic vision of the interaction between traditional political graft and contemporary technology, where idealism is suffocated by a culture as toxic as the water in the ground, the environment is sacrificed to economic need, image is more important that scientific truth, and money becomes the ultimate motivation, weapon and moral arbiter. The production's final third emerges from a medium-paced survey of the motivations and behaviours of its various symbolic characters (the social media influencer who lacks real agency, the manipulative provost, the corrupted journalist) to a scathing and passionate denunciation of how public opinion follows media misinformation to its brutal conclusion.

When 'the enemy', Kirsten Stockmann (Hannah Donaldson), gatecrashes the launch of a leisure complex that's set to regenerate the town but has actually polluted its local water supply, she dives into a vehement polemic that skewers the play's society while also appearing to directly address the audience. As in many of Hurley's scripts, the combination of passion and intelligent political observation drives a potent theatricality. Suggestive of post-pandemic paranoia and lambasting apathy, ignorance and online aggression, Stockmann's denunciation of the town evolves into a focussed diatribe against the internet's failed promise to give a voice to everyone, arguing that it simply amplifies misinformation by the state and mainstream media.

Finn Den Hertog's direction draws on a familiar dramaturgy with the actors dwarfed by a screen that projects them overhead; this emphasises the media's dominance but does little to focus the action. Meanwhile, solid performances across the ensemble capitalise on each character's archetypal identity. Ibsen's naturalism is tempered by a sense of tragic inevitability, and the ferocity of the message is contained within a conservative theatricality. The script's intensity drives the drama, with a twist in the ending in which hope is cunningly snatched away, thus reflecting on the apparent futility of protest when a culture has rigged the result.

By adapting the script of a canonical playwright, Hurley and National Theatre Of Scotland locate this political tragedy within a modern tradition. This perhaps acknowledges that 21st century problems, expressed here in leisure centres and online video bites, are rooted both in the past and in the very nature of capitalism. With moments of theatrical fire and rage, The Enemy may not strike out into new theatrical territory, but it expresses a frustration that's immediate and abstract.

The Enemy is on tour across Scotland until Saturday 6 November; review from King's Theatre, Edinburgh, Wednesday 20 October.