A Master Builder creates a bleak self-portrait

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      Starring Wallace Shawn and Julie Hagerty. Rating unavailable.

      Like many artists, Henrik Ibsen turned more abstract after years of creating relatively accessible “hits”—in his case, with theatre-defining domestic dramas like A Doll’s House, Peer Gynt, and Ghosts. The Norwegian playwright, who wrote in Danish, premiered The Master Builder in 1893, not long after his masterpiece, Hedda Gabler. Then in his mid-60s and in an autobiographical mood, he would write just three more plays in his remaining 15 years.

      A bleak self-portrait peeks out of this energetic, two-hour-plus version, adapted for the stage by Wallace Shawn and André Gregory (famously paired for Louis Malle’s My Dinner With André) and directed by Jonathan Demme.

      The diminutive Shawn gives us a surprisingly virile Halvard Solness, biggest architect in a small town, currently musing on the wrongs he did to end up in a large, comfortable house, surrounded by nurses while in decline. He confides to his doctor (Larry Pine) that his success squashed a rival builder (the briefly seen Gregory), and that he has managed to suppress the rival’s potentially talented son, Ragnar. (His indignities extend to the end credits, which picture all the speaking actors except Jeff Biehl.)

      Worse, he has tethered Ragnar as his assistant through an affair with the younger man’s mousy fiancée (Emily Cass McDonnell). There have been other transgressions, which seem apparent to the architect’s prim, long-suffering wife, played superbly by Julie Hagerty, betraying no hint of her Airplane! days.

      Into this den of sleeping vipers comes young Hilda Wangel, reminding him of their possibly unsavoury encounter when she was a mere child. All tossing hair, tennis shorts, and hysterical laughter, she’s almost a caricature of youthful sexuality. The character may be some kind of phantom projection, but the viewer’s attitude toward Hilda, and to the production itself, may depend on perceptions of Lisa Joyce in the role. Her frenetically overeager performance, coupled with Demme’s decision to shoot almost every interaction in tight close-ups, made me laugh hysterically when, upon reflection, that was probably not anyone’s goal. In general, a feeling of vaguely forced intensity keeps this Builder from being the masterful thought-provoker its blueprints probably demanded.

      Comments

      1 Comments

      A. MacInnis

      Sep 11, 2014 at 12:51pm

      Hagerty and Shawn both worked together in Tom Noonan's terrific directorial effort The Wife, if memory serves...!