Latest news with #Solness
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Evening Standard
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Evening Standard
My Master Builder at Wyndham's Theatre review: a load of old nonsense
Much of what follows blends research-heavy references to superstar architects and the international commissions they compete for with stilted dialogue that sounds as if it's been imperfectly translated from Ibsen-era Norwegian. 'Rem Koolhaas? That old bounder!' says Solness at one point. I'm sorry - that old what now? Every time someone says 'master builder' or 'master bedroom' - and they use both phrases improbably often – it sounds like 'masturbation'.
Telegraph
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
My Master Builder: Ewan McGregor struggles to raise the roof in his stage return
Ewan McGregor is back on the London stage after a 17-year absence. You have to rewind to late 2007 for his last theatre credit (one of only a handful in his career): playing a smooth, sly Iago to Chiwetel Ejiofor's Othello at the Donmar. Such was the clamour to behold the star up-close back then that some tickets were reportedly changing hands for more than £1,000. Whether the same frenzy will attend his return to theatreland in a reimagining of Ibsen's mysterious late play The Master Builder by New York-based Lila Raicek (which sees him reunite for a third time with director Michael Grandage) seems more doubtful. Thanks not least to Star Wars, McGregor's name remains no small box-office draw. Yet, while it's nice to have him treading the boards again – his allure undimmed – he struggles to attain the intensity required to raise the roof as Solness, a Scot-Brit 'starchitect' whose ascendancy is poised for a vertiginous fall. The Master Builder (1892) is a portrait (indeed a self-portrait) of a successful soul in torment. Ibsen's abiding theme was the 'false life', one built on rotten foundations. In A Doll's House, the reckoning, in which a marriage and way of living collapses, carries a cathartic release and rebirth. Here, however, the direction of travel is more ominous; the catalyst for Solness's implosion is a young woman (Hilde) who re-enters his world 10 years after a sexualised encounter that bound them together; her reappearance, ahead of a new building being unveiled, brings to a head personal guilt, marital woe and mortal dread. Given how often of late high-profile men have reaped the whirlwind of rapacious behaviour, the work seems ripe for a topical update. But Raicek's spin – re-located to the monied Hamptons on July 4 – is less serrated than expected. Exuding a benign, almost youthful aura of laid-back charm, this Solness has little of the customary embattled angst – and at 54, the age-gap between him and Elizabeth Debicki's revenant Hilde isn't so glaring as to match the original's inherent provocation. The women are given more agency by Raicek – the willowy American interloper is poised to release a novel about her 'Master' and interview him too, while Solness's high-powered publisher wife (Kate Fleetwood's gloweringly spiky Elena) is ready to serve divorce papers; she's half-angling for female solidarity. What should deepen and tauten the drama alas throws up inconclusive thoughts on empowerment and a ton of emotional overstatement. It's hard to care about this lot, including David Ajala's Ragnar, a pretentious and rather pre-fab flamboyant star in the field, and Elena's nondescript assistant (Mirren Mack's Kaia). Perky allusions to David Bowie aside, the writing clunks, and the strain on the cast shows. Instead of gathering momentum, a mood of melodrama takes hold, with McGregor finally seeming rather lost amid Richard Kent's imposing, climbable set of horizontal slats and secreted stairs. Instead of busting free of the original, the chic, effortful result proves an intriguing but frustrating half-way house.
Daily Mail
29-04-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Fact To File now 11/8 to win the Champion Chase at Punchestown today - while Marine Nationale is next in the market at 2/1 with Sky Bet
The Willie Mullins-trained Fact To File has been boosted from 1/1 to 11/8 to win at the Punchestown Festival today - as the gelding lines up for the feature race of the day - the Champion Chase. Fact To File was impressive at the Cheltenham Festival last time out - with the French-bred horse winning the Ryanair Chase by nine lengths from Heart Wood. The eight-year-old also boasts course form at Punchestown - as he finished first past the post in the Grade 1 John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase in November of last year. Meanwhile, it is Marine Nationale who is perceived to be the biggest threat to Fact To File - as the Irish horse enters today's fixture as a 2/1 second-favourite. Marine Nationale was very impressive in his last outing - winning the Cheltenham Festival's Queen Mother Champion Chase by a convincing 18 lengths. Similarly to Fact To File - Marine Nationale also boasts strong course form, having won at the venue on two separate occasions. Lastly, for those after outsiders in the market - El Fabiolo, Solness, Captain Guinness and Senecia are next at 11/2, 10/1, 33/1 and 100/1 respectively. Sky Bet odds for the Punchestown Festival's Champion Chase: Fact To File WAS 1/1 NOW 11/8 Marine Nationale 2/1 El Fabiolo 11/2 Solness 10/1 Captain Guinness 33/1 Senecia 100/1
Telegraph
12-03-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
Cheltenham Festival live: Snow covers racecourse but racing goes ahead on Wednesday
10:05AM Day two is upon us By Marcus Armytage Nicky Henderson may have won nine Champion Hurdles but if he is synonymous with one race at the Festival it is, by virtue of the greatness of Remittance Man and his dual winners Sprinter Sacre and Altior, the BetMGM Queen Mother Champion Chase, a race he has only won six times so far. In Jonbon he has another superstar but to join Henderson's great two milers he has to win today's race. He is unquestionably the best horse in it but as yesterday's Champion Hurdle proved that can sometimes count for nothing and, tactically it is one of the most fascinating races of this year's Festival because of the presence of the Joseph O'Brien trained Solness. When Solness won a Grade One at Leopardstown at Christmas the expert view was that JJ Slevin and the seven-year-old should be arrested for burglary. However when the horse repeated the feat to beat Marine Nationale two lengths at the Dublin Racing Festival, it looked like the new tactic was bringing the best out of Solness. There are many ways of winning from the front. On the Flat Frankie Dettori is the master of controlling the pace, slowing it down and then kicking before anyone else. If he has a trademark ride it is it. More traditionally over jumps it is to make the most of a horse's long stride to pile the pressure on those chasing and maintain a lead by out jumping the opposition who then find themselves constantly on the back foot. It often puts their jumping under pressure. Solness has found a novel way to make the running which is to post some very strong fractions mid race for a mile, say from half a mile to a mile and a half, get a breather in while the others play catch up, go again and hope you have enough left to repel any late challenges. In many ways Cheltenham lends itself to that tactic and Slevin can kick on and open up down the hill away from the stands and try and win it there. The dilemma for Nico de Boinville, the best big race jockey riding in Britain at the moment, on Jonbon is whether to go with Solness or sit and let him go 10 or 15 lengths clear. Or a bit of both. Either way de Boinville will have a plan. There is an argument which has gained some traction in this sport of opinions that Jonbon is not overly in love with Cheltenham but I cannot have that. He has started there five times winning the Shloer twice, finishing second to Constitution Hill in the Supreme and El Fabiolo in the Arkle and arguably his best run was to get within a head of winning the Clarence House after all but capsizing the fourth last. If he was once a tricky customer at home he has now matured into the finished article and I expect him to become Henderson's fourth great two miler rather than join the likes of Douvan and Well Chief as top two milers who never won a Champion Chase. Last year Captain Guinness did a 'Golden Ace' picking up the piece of a race which had fallen apart but he cannot, surely, be that lucky twice. If Energumene, now 11 wins, he would become the first horse since Badsworth Boy 1983-5 to win it three times and, of course, if Marine Nationale, the horse that propelled the late Michael O'Sullivan into the big time, that would also be a poignant winner. The New Lion can win the opening Turners Novice Hurdle for the Skeltons who must have thought the Arkle theirs yesterday before Jango Baie appeared from out of the clouds while Ballyburn should double his Festival tally by winning the Brown Advisory Novice Chase. Escaria Ten can massively outrun his odds of 50-1 in the Glenfarclas Cross-Country, a once gimmicky race which has now won its place in racegoers' hearts, without winning it. Through Gordon Elliott saddles six of the 16 runner field - his best shot looks like last year's Grand National fourth Galvin - Gavin Cromwell has good chances with both Stumptown and the well weighted Vannilier. Riding out for Elliott this week I have sat on Coko Beach and, yesterday, The Goffer who felt better than he did when fifth in the Ultima last year and will enjoy the ground.
