★★★½

“Grandage’s direction captures the intoxicating glamour and moral decay of 1980s London”

Should we love people for their beauty, or are people made beautiful through being loved? That is one of the central questions of The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst’s Booker Prize-winning novel, now given its first stage adaptation at the Almeida.

After a seven-year publishing hiatus, Hollinghurst’s 2024 novel Our Evenings reminded readers of his deft treatment of class, race and sexuality in late 20th-century Britain. This adaptation of his 2004 masterpiece, directed by Michael Grandage and adapted by Jack Holden, feels timely again: a period piece that still captures the social anxieties and desires of the present.

The story follows Nick Guest (Jasper Talbot), a young Oxford graduate who moves into the London home of his friend Toby Fedden’s family between 1983 and 1987. The Feddens seem gracious hosts: Gerald (Charles Edwards), a newly minted Tory MP on the up in Thatcher’s Britain, and Rachel (Claudia Harrison), the moneyed, quietly controlling matriarch. Yet beneath their polished hospitality lies an unease—Nick’s sexuality is tolerated rather than embraced, and despite his education and charm, he remains forever an outsider.

The production’s strongest moments come in the first act, contrasting Nick’s initiation into the Feddens’ rarefied world with his tender, complex relationship with Leo (a wonderful Alistair Nwachukwu), his first boyfriend. The class and racial dynamics between them are finely drawn: to the Feddens, Nick is gauche and provincial; to Leo, he represents privilege and aspiration. Their dinner scene at Leo’s family home is the play’s emotional heart, Doreene Blackstock is superb as Leo’s devout Jamaican mother, layering issues of class, race, sexuality and faith with undeniable warmth.

Adam Cork’s sound design brilliantly anchors the production in its era. 80s pop anthems throb through the set, evoking the ecstasy and danger of the decade. Subtler choices are just as effective: a soft echo added to conversations in country estates conjures a chilling sense of distance and grandeur. Christopher Oram’s costumes complete the world—corduroy trousers, baggy shirts, and side ponytails secured with satin scrunchies perfectly capturing the aesthetic of the age.

The play can feel overstuffed. A vast array of characters and subplots race through a decade of shifting politics and private betrayals. Some secondary roles are barely glimpsed, though “Old Pete” (Matt Mella), Leo’s older ex-lover, leaves a lasting impression in just a few minutes on stage.

There are clunky moments: stylised scene transitions, on-the-nose symbolism (a line of cocaine mirroring the “line of beauty”), and some heavy-handed dialogue. And Talbot as Nick feels like a vessel for the audience to view this world rather than a hero: passive, and at times insipidly submissive, forever observing beauty rather than creating it. But Grandage’s direction captures the intoxicating glamour and moral decay of 1980s London, while Arty Froushan’s totally tragic Wani brings a raw vulnerability to the later scenes.

In the end, as the impact of the AIDS pandemic draws closer in and the hypocrisies of wealth and politics are laid bare, Nick’s exile feels inevitable. On the whole this adaptation of The Line of Beauty is a thoughtful, sensuous reflection on love, class and the price of belonging.

MY MASTER BUILDER

Wyndham’s Theatre

★★★

“Director Michael Grandage moves the action swiftly along, although there are no real obstacles in the script that is fast flowing and fresh”

Lila Raicek’s “My Master Builder” is not a translation of Ibsen’s ‘The Master Builder’. Nor is it an adaptation. But it is in no way a new play either even though it has its own, very contemporary feel to it. It’s a play about the dynamics of power, and Raicek successfully brings the female characters out of the shadows that Ibsen originally cast them in. Elena, the wife (an assured and seductively fiery Kate Fleetwood), is very much the co-star alongside architect Ewan McGregor’s starry status as the architect Henry. All the characters are on an equal footing in the story of a fractured marriage. A couple that, on the surface, have it all – but beneath the glossy surface grief at the loss of their son appears to be the only foundation holding them together. Played out in real time, it is July 4th, in the present day. Henry is unveiling his latest architectural triumph while his wife is getting the party in full swing. The arrival of former student Mathilde (Elizabeth Debicki) triggers memories, stirs up past desires and sets the wheels of tragedy in motion. By interval the blue touch paper is well and truly lit. The second act will provide the fireworks.

Henry – the successful and eminent architect – is the architect of his own fate, and of those around him. But this interpretation shifts the weight onto the women. Feminine power is the keynote, yet it strikes a little out of tune here, not quite finding its pitch. The vitriol that Fleetwood invests in Elena’s anger lacks justification. We would be on her side more if we could see the grief more than the righteousness. In fact, with all the characters, there is a sense of it being ‘all about me’, and it is hard to warm to these selfish personalities. The exceptions are David Ajala, as Henry’s protégé Ragnar and Mirren Mack’s Kaia. The couple share a humility that the others should definitely take note of.

Director Michael Grandage moves the action swiftly along, although there are no real obstacles in the script that is fast flowing and fresh. The central theme of the older man’s infatuation with a younger woman is not so fresh, however, and the handling is clumsy. Debicki’s Mathilde is a striking figure, but we are in constant confusion as to where her loyalties lie. We share Henry’s sentiment when he repeatedly declares her to be too beautiful to be real, but McGregor’s words are just as unreal. We just cannot believe most of what he says. Whilst the acting can’t be faulted, the mood swings and the shifts from realism to histrionics hinder the delivery.

Richard Kent’s set evokes the modernism of Henry’s visionary architecture, peeling it back to reveal the watery backdrop of the Hamptons in New York. The shoehorned references to Henry’s vertigo are vivid signposts to the tragic finale, even to those unfamiliar with the Ibsen original. Raicek’s play stands alone, though, so no familiarity is needed. Apparently semi-autobiographical, it is easy to follow, with just enough twists to satisfy. Set within the confines of a party there are nods to Thomas Vinterberg’s ‘Festen’, or Moira Buffini’s ‘Dinner’, but without much of the darkness and the suspense. Things fall apart too quickly, and the manipulations of the subplots are lost in the cascade. More could be made of Elena’s threat of making or breaking Mathilde’s debut novel, depending on whether she becomes an ally or remains a rival for her husband’s love. The punch of Raicek’s narrative is too often softened by platitudes. ‘Men do so little to be worshipped’ complains Elena, ‘while women have to do so much just to succeed’.

There is much talk of the master bedroom, and the master guest room in which past, present and potential lovers can retreat; but the play falls short of being a masterpiece. “My Master Builder” does have the power, though, to keep us gripped. What stands out more is its portrayal of the sense of loss. These are characters that have achieved much and gained more than they could want, but the losses – of love and of life – topple the lives they have built for themselves. We just wish we could care more, and sympathise with the sense of self-destruction built into them, but the piece needs a stronger foundation to truly hold it together.

Tag Archives: Adam Cork

THE LINE OF BEAUTY

★★★½

Almeida Theatre

THE LINE OF BEAUTY

Almeida Theatre

★★★½

“Grandage’s direction captures the intoxicating glamour and moral decay of 1980s London”

THE LINE OF BEAUTY

Almeida Theatre

Reviewed on 30th October 2025

by Amber Woodward

Photography by Johan Persson

Previously reviewed at this venue:

ROMANS | ★★★½ | September 2025

A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN | ★★★★★ | June 2025

1536 | ★★★★ | May 2025

RHINOCEROS | ★★★★ | April 2025

OTHERLAND | ★★★★ | February 2025

THE LINE OF BEAUTY

THE LINE OF BEAUTY

THE LINE OF BEAUTY

MY MASTER BUILDER

★★★

Wyndham’s Theatre

MY MASTER BUILDER

Wyndham’s Theatre

★★★

“Director Michael Grandage moves the action swiftly along, although there are no real obstacles in the script that is fast flowing and fresh”