Kate Fleetwood on starring in a reimagining of an Ibsen classic 'My Master Builder'

Stage veteran Kate Fleetwood has returned to the West End, starring alongside Ewan McGregor and Elizabeth Debicki in the world premiere of Lila Raicek’s My Master Builder.

Taking a well-earned lunch break, Tony- and Olivier Award-nominated actress Kate Fleetwood looks relaxed in her sun-drenched dressing room. Four weeks into rehearsals for My Master Builder, she describes this point as “a kind of freefalling place where you know where you want to land, but you haven’t quite got the right parachute on yet”. She’s playing Elena, the publishing magnate wife of the titular architect Henry (Ewan McGregor). In the midst of a celebration of Henry’s latest building project, the couple are unexpectedly joined by Henry’s former student, Mathilde (Elizabeth Debicki).

As the trio expose the open wounds from their fractured past, Fleetwood says the action is likely to strike a chord for many audience members. “Depending on where you are in your life and your relationships, as with all good theatre you’re going to respond quite viscerally to the human condition.”

Fleetwood talks to London Theatre Magazine about reinventing Ibsen, her maximalist approach to finding a character, and a bizarre brush with Jeremy Irons at the start of her career.

How familiar were you with The Master Builder?
I did Ghosts when I was a much younger actress and, interestingly, part of Ibsen’s mastery is that he manages to make exposition and the history of the characters as interesting as the subtext. My Master Builder is a retelling and loosely based on the original in that there’s a complicated history with these three characters. But yeah, I haven’t done a new version of Ibsen before and this take is very current. In the Ibsen play, the wife character is a great part but not featured that much, whereas in this retelling she really drives a lot of the action. The writer has given a lot of oxygen to the power play between the two women and I think that’s an interesting dynamic in the wake of #MeToo.

Does My Master Builder retain the dreamlike elements of Ibsen’s Master Builder?
Very much. Of course, it’s set in a very domestic situation, but we’re talking about how steel and stone connect to future and legacy and memory. It’s about how we re-tell our own narratives to either take responsibility or abscond from responsibility. So, the metaphor of the building, the architecture of people’s lives falling apart and being rebuilt, it’s all there. But what Lila’s done really well is that even though it is linear in the telling, it feels elliptical.

Do you have any techniques or rituals you employ to find your character?
I tend to get ALL the paints out of the paint box! I know some artists dab but I sort of chuck paint at the wall. Then I scratch OFF the canvas – I maximise then pull it back until all the things I’m trying to touch on collide and I can see what I don’t need. But I have to connect with the language – the imaginative landscape I’m being asked to involve myself in. I don’t have any weird rituals – I’m very practical. I don’t have a running machine in the wings if I have to come on breathless.

Is director Michael Grandage a hard taskmaster?
No, he’s just very in it and on it – he mouths the words and you can see his body convulsing! I trust him implicitly, especially going into this next phase when the production really starts to know itself. I’ve always wanted to be in his shows because they’re very special. And I’ve never played the Wyndham’s, so I’m really excited about that.

You started out aged 12 with the RSC – what’s your stand-out memory of that experience?
I have lots actually – it was such a halcyon time. I did A Midsummer Night’s Dream – I was playing a fairy and Pete Postlethwaite was Bottom, Sean Bean was one of the mechanicals and Joely Richardson was playing Helena. Janet McTeer was doing her first show out of drama school as Titania – it really was quite an impressive company. The back dock to the RST was the same back dock as the Swan Theatre, so both casts would walk past each other. One night I had a coughing fit and there was a bin underneath the band that I was basically puking up in. Jeremy Irons was running from stage left to stage right of the Swan and as he came belting round, he stopped and yelled: “Somebody, quick! There’s a fairy being sick in a bin!”

Book My Master Builder tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

This article first appeared in the May 2025 issue of London Theatre Magazine.

Photo credit: Kate Fleetwood and, inset, in My Master Builder. (Photos courtesy of production)