The Master Builder **

David Hare's adaptation of Ibsen's play should resonate with us much more than it does. It may not be Ibsen's best play but it does engage with pertinent and ubiquitous issues: it focuses on an ageing man having a mid life crisis and relying increasingly on the adoration of a much younger woman to bolster his flagging self esteem as he becomes increasingly aware of the disjunct between the reputation and position he holds within society as this masterful master builder, and his actual skills, which are inferior to the younger generation's. As he questions his sense of himself, he becomes increasingly distant from, and cruel to, his wife whom he is all too aware of failing. He obsesses over the idea that she thinks him mad, eventually convincing her and the doctor of precisely that.
These are all powerful ideas and emotions that should be easy to relate to. Although the production started off promisingly, once Sarah Snook enters the scene as the fresh faced young woman the Master Builder falls in love with, everything goes rapidly downhill. She plays the part so brashly that I simply can't believe in her character, or their relationship, and as such all the pathos and drama of his journey is lost. Ralph Fiennes tries his best to reclaim the spirit of naturalism but against her overbearingly loud voice and affected personality he can barely wrest our  The set is also a funny one. I don't think I liked Rob Howell's design all that much, and I thought the collapse of the branch like scaffolding at the end was almost comical, just when it was meant to be tragic. I also thought the music didn't add a great deal, though it was clearly meant to add some mystery and drama. The production has a sort of fairy tale like setting but without having the majesty it surely should. Basically I found the whole thing fairly disappointing, though the rest of the audience - in, I cynically feel, in homage to Fiennes' celebrity - seemed to be much more impressed than me.