My Master Builder is a new version of Ibsen’s classic with a tweaked title and a transformed storyline. Henry and Elena Solness are a British power couple living in the Hamptons whose relationship is in meltdown after the accidental death of their son. Elena has scrambled to reach the top of the publishing world but she feels bitter that Henry’s career as an architect came to him so easily. When their marriage went awry, she played the field, seducing both men and women, and now she lusts after Henry’s protegé, Ragnar, a camp young stud who may be bisexual. Ragnar is almost too complicated to understand. He’s a philandering black Norwegian with dyed blond hair who speaks English in a Billy Bunter accent that includes flourishes such as ‘crikey!’ and ‘you’re acting like a little nutter,’ and ‘copy that’ (meaning ‘yes’). In dramatic terms, Ragnar is a prize that Elena must possess because her thirst for conquest is boundless.
Henry, meanwhile, has remained faithful to Elena – just about. He pursued an ardent but unconsummated romance with a young journalist, Mathilde, who drafted a novel about their relationship entitled, Master. Here it gets interesting. The manuscript of this explosive work has fallen into the hands of Elena who blackmails Mathilde by offering to publish Master on condition that Henry is revealed as the book’s subject. This will destroy his career.
But does Elena really seek Henry’s ruin? Ibsen’s original story has been entirely abandoned by this point, and the show develops into a saga about a wounded alpha female in pursuit of love, sex and power. Kate Fleetwood sinks her fangs into the role of Elena and sucks out every last drop of blood.
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