The reviews are in for The Master Builder at the Arcola Theatre, where artistic director Mehmet Ergen stages David Edgar’s version of Ibsen’s late play. Greg Hicks is Halvard Solness, the self-taught builder terrified of being overtaken by the young, and Louisa Binder is Hilde Wangel, who walks back into his life to claim a promise he made her ten years earlier. Most critics agree on one thing. Binder, making her stage debut, is the performance people are talking about. On the rest, from Hicks to the pace of the evening, they split.
3.5 / 5 from 9 criticsThe verdict: nine notices so far, all of them rated: one five-star, three at four stars, one three-and-a-half, three at three stars and one two-star, which averages 3.5 out of 5. Nearly every critic singles out Louisa Binder’s Hilde, and Sally George’s Aline is close behind. Greg Hicks divides them: Plays International, West End Best Friend and WhatsOnStage rate his Solness highly, while Liam O’Dell finds him abrupt and disconnected. Several, from Theatre Weekly to LondonTheatre1, want more atmosphere or more pace from the staging.
What are critics saying about The Master Builder?
Plays International
Reviewer: Tom Bolton
“His exceptional performance is a privilege to watch close-up in such a small space.”
The top score. Bolton says Ergen handles the play’s hardest problems in exemplary fashion, setting it in a credible modern architect’s office and letting its eeriness creep in. Hicks is called masterful and Binder his match, and the clarity of the production makes Solness’s final climb feel inevitable.
Theatre Weekly
Reviewer: Matthew Plampton
“Binder is captivating as Hilde, shifting effortlessly between almost childlike excitement, disarming naivety and calculated control.”
Plampton describes a compelling psychological battle anchored by three strong central performances, with Sally George bringing wit and real heartbreak to Aline. The one regret is technical: the lighting and sound hint at a more sinister atmosphere than the production ever fully builds.
West End Best Friend
Reviewer: Chris Abbott
“Once again, the Arcola Theatre have created a production of a classic which is both of its time and for today.”
Abbott calls it taut, enthralling and authoritative. The central trio are judged exemplary, with Hicks a dapper figure whose reputation turns out to be built on sand and Binder a luminous presence, and the smaller roles are strongly cast too. The verdict: not to be missed.
View from the Gods
Reviewer: Simon Jenner
“It’s still a superb, one might say psychically clean production: the best a rational world can offer.”
Jenner finds Hicks’s Solness coiled with feral energy and Binder’s debut blazing into the play. The reservation is the restraint itself: the clean set holds back the haunted side of late Ibsen, and a little more of it would have made the evening outstanding.
Salterton Arts Review
“A stylish production of The Master Builder, directed by Mehmet Ergen, melds strong performances with striking design.”
Reviewer: Erin Caswell
“The grief and brittle dignity woven through her performance are exceptional.”
Seeing the play for the first time, Caswell names Sally George’s Aline the highlight of the evening, with Binder walking a fine line between manipulator and believer and Hicks entirely compelling. Robert Innes Hopkins’s design wins praise; the closing projection and the lighting and sound less so.
WhatsOnStage
Reviewer: Julia Rank
“There’s a considerable amount to admire in this production, but it is ultimately something of a hollow edifice.”
Rank finds the play slow-burning and short on sympathy, and the design chic and skeletal. Hicks is excellent as always as a bully afraid of the young, but the show is stolen by Binder’s superb debut, which makes a tricky role believable.
LondonTheatre1
Reviewer: Chris Omaweng
“A considerably pacier production would have made for a more engaging evening.”
Omaweng credits the cast with doing a good job but did not find the evening riveting. The sluggish pace sits oddly with a builder supposedly in such demand, and Solness’s self-pity left this critic cold towards him and towards the women around him.
Theatre and Tonic
Reviewer: Brad
“Regardless this is a wholly competent production, it has its "4 walls and a roof" but unfortunately does not reach the dizzying heights of greatness.”
This review finds the translation reverent and the leading performances textbook Ibsen, which makes for a repetitive tone. Sally George’s Aline is the exception, called electrifying. The modern set and costumes promise a reinvention that the production never delivers.
Liam O’Dell
“Greg Hicks is a distant Solness in disjointed Ibsen staging”
Reviewer: Liam O’Dell
“It means Binder is the standout as Hilde – reactive, playful and curious.”
The dissenting voice. O’Dell finds the play boiled down to a dangerous romance with the social detail stripped out, Hicks abrupt and disconnected, and the set and video design underused. Binder’s energy is the clear exception.
Production photographs by Alex Brenner.
For more from the Arcola this autumn, see our roundups of The Banality of Evil, The Turn of the Screw and Fire Fire.
The Master Builder runs at the Arcola Theatre until 21 November 2026.
For more information, visit the official website.
