My Master Builder

Wyndham's Theatre

Playing until 12th July 2025

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Photo credit: Johan Persson

Under the pretence of celebrating her husband, Henry Solness’s (Ewan McGregor), latest architectural piece, Elena (Kate Fleetwood) has more planned beneath the façade of this happy married relationship. When the guests begin to arrive, it becomes apparent that a storm of betrayal is on the horizon as scabs are picked off to expose wounds of the past.

Hosting a party at the Solness’s residence, we are introduced to a deeply unhappy Elena, who not only finds the meaningless competition among toxic architect competitions exhausting, but also frustrated by the constant uphill battle faced by women in both their professional and personal lives. Elena is hellbent on divorcing her husband and use the party to destroy the very foundation of Henry’s career and expose his past discretion. The invitations to Henry’s past student, Mathilde (Elizabeth Debicki), who he shared a romantic relationship with, and Ragnar (David Ajala), Henry’s protégé who is now recognised as a rockstar in the architect circle, are the pieces Elena orchestrated to complete her game.

Raicek’s script seems like the perfect setup of an imbalance of power between men and women, mentor and student, husband and wife. While the play glimpses into this at a surface level, it does not deep dive into this topic. While some of these are obvious, for example Ragnar being mindful of Elena’s business and political influence and tiptoes around her romantic and sexual advances, but never bold enough to push her away, and Elena’s assistant, Kaia (Mirren Mack), is afraid to reveal her relationship with Ragnar herself, and puts the responsibility on Ragnar to go public, these only scratch the surface and there seems to be little interest from the writer to pursue this aspect further.

Being the centre of the plot, there is ambiguity in the power dynamic among Henry, Elena and Mathilde. Although it could be interpreted that the script and direction are intended to create this complexity, but in reality, it does not speak to the emotional burden of power nor the struggles within these systems. Instead, it creates three manipulative characters who each make the use of their own influence to control the other under the illusion of wanting love.

Torn between his wife and mistress, McGregor plays a confused Henry, never knowing what kind of person he wants to be, whether it is a caring and loving husband or a man in pursuit of his desires. This, I think, is due to the script and direction, as Henry constantly asks Mathilde to recount their past, and it becomes unclear as to whether he simply wants to remind her of the passion they shared or it is indeed, as Elena said, Mathilde is simply one of many he had an affair with and he could not recall the details.

Fleetwood’s Elena is the true master of this story, orchestrating the setup, every step of her move is calculated, portraying a woman willing to go to extreme lengths to achieve her goal. Fleetwood commands the stage with her presence, the mistress of the house, showing her strength, resolve and weakness as she eventually succumbs to the feeling she still harbours for Henry.

Richard Kent’s set is beautifully crafted, masking a staircase behind a glass pyramid, creates the stage necessary to demonstrate Henry’s architectural vision, his ascent and eventual downfall. The near transparent pyramid also creates a sense of fragility of the set, as if it could all tumble down and not enough to fully support Henry that stands upon it at various points of the play, suggesting his relationships and career are perhaps not built on a strong footing.

Despite strong performances and a myriad of commendable creative choices, they could not fully fill the gap left by the narrative, which seems to have slipped out of the discussion about power dynamics and slid into a tale of manipulation.

Creatives

Writer: Lila Raicek

Director: Michael Grandage

Set and Costume Designer: Richard Kent

Lighting Designer: Paule Constable

Sounder Designer and Composer: Adam Cork

Producers: Marketstall, Michael Grandage Company, Seaview