Symbolic ‘Builder’ Constructs Artist’s Life

One of Ibsen’s later works, “The Master Builder” is also one of his most meta-physically fervid, a transparent autobiography of an artist at the peak of his powers who fears the inevitable plunge.

The Master Builder, Solness (Richard Fancy), is a vertiginous personality, at once magnificent and petty, at war with the Almighty and his own turbulent self. Once Solness built cathedrals; now he constructs domiciles for men. Still, he yearns to create the vaulting edifices of his younger, finer days. His own house, just completed, has been designed with a high tower.

The symbol is obvious--and lethal. When the lively and amoral Hilda (Sara Newman) descends on the Master Builder in fulfillment of an old promise, Solness falls under the spell of her youth and vitality. At play’s end, acquiescing to Hilda’s demand, Solness scales the tower in a grand gesture of potency and expiation.

In an austere and otherwise effective staging, Gar Campbell overly restrains his cast, which, with the exception of the two leads and the wonderful William Dennis Hunt as Solness’ dying associate, is inconsistent.

Written a few years after Ibsen’s own intense but short-lived dalliance with a girl 43 years his junior, the play may seem a trifle simplistic by post-feminist standards, particularly in Hilda’s coloration as sexual predator. Yet Newman tears into the role like the ravening bird of Ibsen’s imagination. Fancy’s portrayal is more subterranean. Quivering with Scandinavian angst and sexual repression, Fancy’s Solness is a brilliant blend of lechery and longing that, once seen, will live in memory.

* “The Master Builder,” Pacific Resident Theatre, 705 1/2 Venice Blvd., Venice. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends June 26. $20-$22. (310) 822-8392. Running time: 2 hours, 35 minutes.