Jonathan Demme (Oscar winning director of The Silence Of The Lambs), André Gregory (My Dinner With Andre), and Wallace Shawn (My Dinner With Andre, The Princess Bride) update Henrik Ibsen’s A Master Builder, a modern classic about a successful, egomaniacal architect who has spent a lifetime bullying his wife, employees and mistresses – who nonetheless wants to make peace with himself as his life approaches its final act.
Working from his own translation of the Norwegian text, Wallace Shawn gives a tour-de-force performance as the cruel, yet guilt-ridden architect.
Jonathan Demme’s direction is based on the near-legendary production created for the stage by André Gregory, developed over a 14-year period.
Lisa Joyce plays a sensual, mysterious young visitor who turns the household upside down, much to the consternation of Julie Hagerty, perfectly cast as Shawn’s neurasthenic, long-suffering wife.
Scandinavian angst — reinterpreted by New York’s finest.
