Ewan McGregor will return to the London stage for the first time in 17 years to star in a new play about sexual politics.
My Master Builder by American playwright Lila Raicek is to be staged by Michael Grandage, who previously directed McGregor in Othello and Guys and Dolls. Raicek’s play, inspired by Henrik Ibsen’s classic The Master Builder, stars McGregor as an architect, Henry Solness, whose wife throws him a party in the Hamptons to celebrate the unveiling of his new work. The evening is then disrupted by the arrival of his former student.
The production begins previews at Wyndham’s theatre on 17 April and runs until 12 July. Further casting is yet to be announced.
McGregor said: “It’s such a thrill to be returning to the stage – and to work with Michael again, an actor’s director with whom I have had some of my happiest working experiences. He’s a generous collaborator, who enables you to discover the play together afresh in the rehearsal room. And what a play – I love where Lila has taken the story, a very modern take on today’s sexual politics.”
Grandage called it “a privilege to open a new play in the West End and to bring emerging and original voices to as wide an audience as possible”. The play is co-produced by Grandage’s company MGC with MarketStall and Seaview. Raicek, who is based in New York, has also written the plays Fire Season, inspired by Measure for Measure, and Tulla, about the artist Edvard Munch. Her debut novel, The Plunge, is to be published next year.
McGregor studied drama at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After film success with Shallow Grave, Brassed Off and Trainspotting, he appeared in Hampstead theatre’s 1998 production of Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs. He played Sky Masterson in a 2005 production of the musical Guys and Dolls and Iago in a 2007 production of Othello, both plays directed by Grandage at the Donmar Warehouse.
