# The Master Builder review – false swagger and queasy infidelity propel Ibsen’s big-drop drama

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/the-master-builder-review-false-swagger-and-queasy-infidelity-propel-ibsens-big-drop-drama/
- Published: 2026-10-27T15:03:07+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-27T15:17:42+00:00
- Original publisher: The Guardian (publisher lean: Left)
- Original article: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/oct/27/the-master-builder-review-arcola-theatre-david-hicks
- Topics: Celebrity, Culture, Entertainment

## Key points

- David Edgar’s translation centres Solness’s struggle to hold on to power.
- The production explores unsettling memories and emotional infidelity.
- The review finds the play’s ending intriguing but its drama static.

## Summary

David Edgar’s translation of Henrik Ibsen’s *The Master Builder* follows architect Halvard Solness as he faces professional rivals, midlife insecurity and the return of a young woman who says he once made her a promise. The Arcola production draws out the play’s psychological tensions and uneasy questions about power, memory and infidelity, though its review argues that the drama’s strange, static quality limits its emotional impact.

Greg Hicks plays Solness as outwardly confident but inwardly unsettled, while Louisa Binder gives Hilde a commanding presence. Sally George’s Aline is grieving the couple’s twin children and alert to her husband’s emotional entanglements; the account of his past kisses with Hilde, when she was 13, makes their present flirtation uncomfortable. The production compresses Ibsen’s three acts into two and runs at the Arcola Theatre in London until 21 November.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.