The Master Builder at Arcola Theatre 16 Oct - 21 Nov 2026

'taut and timeless psychological drama'  ★★★★

White plywood frames of model houses, all with towers, are suspended against brickwork, there are drawing desks and a drinks cabinet with a decanter of scotch. Outside, silver birch trees glisten and all is calm and still while inside this architect's office, in a small town somewhere in Norway, is a hotbed of fear, loathing, illicit liaisons and unresolved conflict. 

We can only be in the Ibsen-sphere of The Master Builder. Originally written in 1892, after A Doll’s House (1879) and Hedda Gabler (1890) this adaptation by David Edgar is directed by Arcola's Artistic Director, Mehmet Ergen. Spare, stripped back and contemporary, it brings together a wealth of acting talent and centers on Greg Hicks as Halvard Solness, the troubled architect. 

Furrow-browed and middle-aged, Halvard Solness fears becoming irrelevant. His loveless marriage brings little joy and Aline, his chic, officious wife played by Sally George, turns a blind eye to her husband’s infidelities with his spellbound book-keeper, Kaja Fosli, the fiancé of Ragnar Brovik, Solness's thrusting young assistant. This is a manipulative, strategic coupling from Solness who hopes to keep Ragnar close and prevent him from leaving to set up his own rival practice.

For most of the 2 hours and 20 minutes (with an interval) Hicks as Halvard Solness is like a coiled spring. He strides, struts, grits his teeth and his voice rises and falls, sometimes mid-sentence. He evokes exasperation, frustration and paranoia and this performance belies his Shakespearean pedigree when contrasted with the more naturalistic cast. Aline confides to the family doctor and confidante, Doctor Herdal—a whiskery, stoic presence from Peter Guinness—that her husband may be experiencing mental health issues, or “going crazy.” Maybe, he is. But when Hilde Wangel, a beautiful young woman, arrives at their door, everything changes. 

Aline met Hilde once at a spa and although Halvard has no recollection, he met her once too, ten years previously, when she was only 13 and he built a new steeple for her community church. She recalls he covered her with kisses, called her ‘his princess,’ and promised in ten years' time to build her “a whole kingdom.” So, here she is.

Louisa Binder's vibrant performance as Hilde is luminescent. She looks a little like Brooke Shields or Margaux Hemingway, and her free, coquettish energy represents everything the master builder feels is lacking in his life. She draws him to her like a moth to a flame, and her arrival draws out buried secrets and sadnesses. She encourages Halvard to be bold, move forward, and take what's rightfully his. It leads to the kind of tragic conclusion we can always rely on from Ibsen, which is played out in painfully spaced beats in a dramatically lit tableau vivant. 

As a psychological drama exploring suppressed guilt and sublimated anger, Master Builder was way ahead of its time and reads like something from Freud's’s casebook - although it preceded Freud work by several decades. Beautifully layered, this text, awash with phallic and psycho-sexual symbolism - how many steeples can you squeeze into one play?— remains a fascinating exploration of human frailty, repressed guilt and buried trauma from modern drama’s very own master builder.

The Master Builder

By Henrik Ibsen

A version by David Edgar

directed by Mehmet Ergen

Arcola Theatre

16 Oct - 21 Nov 2026

BOX OFFICE The Master Builder - Arcola Theatre