Coming late in Ibsen's career, The Master Builder is his most autobiographical work, inspired by his infatuation at 61 with the 18-year-old Emilie Bardach. The titular character, Halvard Solness, ruthlessly treats his office staff: old Knut Brovik, architect, and the latter's draughtsman son, Ragnar, and bookkeeper niece, Kaia. Conscious of waning powers, he fears being supplanted by the younger generation and is caught in a loveless marriage with the gloomy Aline, who has never gotten over the death of their two-week-old twin sons.
Enter the 23-year-old Hilde Wangel, who a decade earlier had been captivated by Solness when he topped off a spire with a wreath in her home town. She has now come to collect on promises he had made but doesn't clearly remember. At any rate, she lights his dormant fires and he becomes a changed man. She prompts him to repeat his spire climbing, with tragic results that nonetheless leave her orgasmically satisfied. Director Anthony Page has done a splendid job of reconciling symbolism and realism, except for an end that could be more intense. He has used an effective new translation by the American playwright and screenwriter John Logan (best known for his oft-staged Never the Sinner).
Solness, with moustache and goatee, is wonderfully portrayed by Patrick Stewart, who gives a subtle and nuanced performance throughout. For once Hilde is young enough, played by blonde Lisa Dillon only a year out of drama school. She is superb -- wily, flirtatious, scheming. Solness doesn't fully understand what is happening to him, but he likes it ("I can't live without joy in my life," he tells her). Sue Johnston is fine as the neurotic Aline, and so are the other lesser players.
