Learn about ‘Enemy of the People’ star Jeremy Strong’s succession of theatre roles

The Succession Emmy Award winner’s Broadway return, in Henrik Ibsen's classic drama this spring, marks reunions with writer Amy Herzog and director Sam Gold.

Jeremy Strong is braced for a battle — again. After an 11-year break from New York theatre, he stars in An Enemy of the People this spring, from February 27. Shouldering the iconic title role of whistleblower Dr. Thomas Stockmann, he’s fighting for the truth in Amy Herzog's new adaptation of the Henrik Ibsen play, directed by Sam Gold.

That’s a 180-degree turn from Strong’s Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning five-year run in Succession. In that celebrated TV series, as Kendall Roy, the actor ruthlessly clawed for the reins of a modern media empire.

Machiavellian? Moral core? He’ll take both. It’s all in a day’s work for Strong, a Yale grad known for diving deeply and passionately into character. His films include Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty, but his showbiz roots actually reach back to a stage-to-screen adaptation, The Crucible. As part of the 1966 film’s greenery unit, he hoisted branches seen outside a window.

Learn more about Strong’s stage work below, and get tickets to see him test the theatrical waters once more at the Circle in the Square Theatre.

Defiance

In his 2006 Off-Broadway debut, Strong made a mighty emotional impression in his single scene. He played an uneducated soldier whose revelation rocks a U.S. Marine Corps base in this Vietnam War drama about power, race, and responsibility by John Patrick Shanley (Doubt, Brooklyn Laundry).

Frank’s Home

Richard Nelson’s 2007 drama at Playwrights Horizons concerned the revolutionary architect Frank Lloyd Wright (Peter Weller). Strong played Wright’s assistant, a young man with dreams of making his own mark in the gentleman’s profession.

A Man for All Seasons

In 2008, Strong leapt to Broadway – and 16th-century England – in this revival of Robert Bolt’s 1960 play starring Frank Langella as Sir Thomas More. Strong portrayed Richard Rich, whose betrays More — with fatal consequences. Co-stars included Michael Esper (Appropriate) and Maryann Plunkett (The Notebook).

New Jerusalem

Strong played the noted 17th-century philosopher name-checked in the title of David Ives’s play, titled in full New Jerusalem: The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza at Talmud Torah Congregation: Amsterdam, July 27, 1656. Variety called Strong’s performance “earnest and smart” in Classic Stage Company's 2008 production of the work, which dives into intellectual and religious freedom.

Our House

Playwright Theresa Rebeck focused on the increasingly fuzzy line between TV news and entertainment in this 2009 Playwrights Horizons production. Strong played Merv, a seemingly moronic couch potato whose observations about modern media are anything but half-baked.

The Coward

Strong was on a roll with six shows in five years, ending with this freewheeling caper about honor, courage, and societal norms by Nick Jones at Lincoln Center Theater. Sam Gold directed Strong, who flexed his comedy muscles as a timid 18th-century English aristocrat who hires a killer to fight his duel. One guess how that turns out.

The Great God Pan

In Amy Herzog’s intense and observant 2012 drama, Strong played a 30something Brooklyn journalist reckoning with the possibility he repressed memories of sexual abuse as a child. The Playwrights Horizons run marked a professional collaboration for the author and actor who already shared history: They attended college together.

An Enemy of the People

In Ibsen’s classic, Dr. Stockmann clashes with the community, close allies, and his family when he exposes danger lurking in local waters. If that sounds like Jaws, the play loosely inspired the blockbuster movie. Michael Imperoli and Victoria Pedretti play Strong’s brother and daughter.