Zdravnica
In the play The Doctor (2019), award-winning British playwright and theatre director Robert Icke places medical ethics in opposition to religious and other ideological beliefs, populism, and the poison of public opinion. The work brings to the forefront complex questions surrounding medical ethics, economic pressures, identity politics, and toxic public discourse.
Icke’s The Doctor is an adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s 1912 comedy Professor Bernhardi, in which he transforms the male protagonist into a female lead and deepens the conflict by relocating the story into the present day. In addition to Schnitzler’s critique of Viennese antisemitism, Icke introduces a range of new motifs and focuses on the question of identity in a broader, philosophical sense. The result is a compelling political and socially critical play that remains just as relevant and explosive today as it was in Schnitzler’s time.
