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GEORGINA BROWN: McGregor returns to West End as Debicki unleashes emotional havoc in a slip dress By GEORGINA BROWN Published: 23:35 BST, 29 April 2025 | Updated: 23:41 BST, 29 April 2025 e-mail View comments A couple of minutes into Lila Raicek’s new play, a middle-aged ‘rock-starchitect’ played by Ewan McGregor is introduced to a guest, Elizabeth Debicki ’s willowy Mathilde. It is an electric moment of recognition for the two stars, bringing their Hollywood allure back to the London stage after long absences – 17 years in McGregor’s case. His character Henry freezes, as if he has seen an apparition.
Which in many ways, he has. The moment his wife leaves them alone, Mathilde touches Henry’s hair – a gesture that suggests, once upon a time, these two might have been more than friends. And so they were, years ago, as Mathilde recalls in a near re-enactment of the seduction scene when he was a prof and she a student.
He called her ‘my little troll’, she called him ‘my master’ and they made love on a desk. Until she was slut-shamed by his furious wife Elena (a seething, scorching Kate Fleetwood). Ewan McGregor (behind in shadow) and Elizabeth Debicki (foreground) are bringing their Hollywood allure back to the London stage after long absences – 17 years in McGregor’s case The moment his wife leaves them alone, Mathilde touches Henry’s hair – a gesture that suggests, once upon a time, these two might have been more than friends As we all know from her astonishing portrayal of Princess Diana in the final episodes of The Crown, as well as her haunting appearance in The Night Manager, Debicki has a rare talent for playing ghosts Her vengeance sharpened by the passage of ten years – and the recognition of herself in an unflattering portrait in Mathilde’s novel, Master – Elena has invited the other woman back into their lives, in order to force the lovers to reckon with the past.
As we all know from her astonishing portrayal of Princess Diana – which spookily captured the familiar crooked-neck pose and the downward gaze – in the final episodes of The Crown, as well as her haunting appearance in The Night Manager, Debicki has a rare talent for playing ghosts. Here she is again, gliding across the stage in a shimmering, figure-skimming silver slip dress, barely there but nevertheless causing emotional havoc. It’s a shame her Mathilde is, in every sense, a thinner, more bloodless figure than the saucy, spirited siren in Henrik Ibsen’s original play, The Master Builder, Raicek’s acknowledged inspiration.
Ibsen’s rich, strange love triangle drew on the playwright’s wild infatuation in his 60s with a younger woman. Raicek’s take might have been retitled The Master Builder’s Wife. Relocated to the glamorous Hamptons, where the rich and spoilt spend their summers, scheming Elena, queen of a publishing empire, is staging a party to celebrate Henry’s magnificent restoration of an old whaler’s church.
It’s a monument and memorial to their son Max, who died there a decade ago in a fire. In Michael Grandage’s sleek production the action flips between this glorious glass building with its stairway to heaven and the sumptuous house on the dunes with the sea glistening beyond. He called her ‘my little troll’, she called him ‘my master’ and they made love on a desk.
Until she was slut-shamed by his furious wife Elena (a seething, scorching Kate Fleetwood, pictured with McGregor) In Michael Grandage’s sleek production the action flips between this glorious glass building with its stairway to heaven and the sumptuous house on the dunes with the sea glistening beyond Ibsen’s rich, strange love triangle drew on the playwright’s wild infatuation in his 60s with a younger woman Ibsen’s ageing architect in the grip of a midlife crisis becomes, for Raicek, a modern study of ‘an egregious imbalance of power’ which sabotaged a young woman’s career This contemporary renovation looks fabulous, but you long for the rich strangeness of the original But while Ibsen was the master of the unspoken, Raicek spells everything out. Ibsen’s ageing architect in the grip of a midlife crisis becomes, for Raicek, a modern study of ‘an egregious imbalance of power’ which sabotaged a young woman’s career. Fleetwood’s jagged, electrifying Elena sets the stage alight.
But the rest of the underwhelming characters, neatly performed but hard to believe in (or warm to) feel like plot devices – mouthpieces sounding off about sexual politics in language overloaded with architectural images and metaphor. No wonder even the earthy McGregor struggles to make clunking pronouncements such as ‘I need a home that contains more light than darkness’ sound heartfelt. This contemporary renovation looks fabulous, but you long for the rich strangeness of the original.
My Master Builder runs until July 12. Ewan McGregor London Share or comment on this article: GEORGINA BROWN: McGregor returns to West End as Debicki unleashes emotional havoc in a slip dress e-mail Add comment Comments 0 Share what you think No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards.
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