The Architect
When the young and passionate Hilde enters her world, full of dreams and ambitions, she ignites a deep and unfamiliar insecurity within the architect. The young woman challenges her to climb the highest tower once more, despite Solness’ growing fear of the endless depths below.
Run time tba
Genre Theatre
Language Dutch
Surtitles English, Thu, June 4 & 11
After talk Fri, June 5 & 12
Premiere Sun, May 31
The Architect
The Architect weaves ambition and doubt, power and vulnerability, reality and dreams into a compelling psychological game. It is a story about a woman teetering on the edge of her own self-made world—grappling with the fear of being replaced, existential uncertainty, and the looming threat of impermanence. What is the true price of success? And is it really pride that comes before the fall?
Rebecca Frecknall
Rebecca Frecknall is an award-winning British director who has worked extensively in the UK and internationally. She is Associate Director at the Almeida Theatre in London through 2025, and will take on the same role at The Old Vic from 2026. In 2024, she made her acclaimed ITA debut with Julie. Starting in 2025, Frecknall will join ITA as the Ibsen Artist in Residence, a position supported by the Philip Loubser Foundation. As part of this residency, she now directs The Architect—a timely, contemporary adaptation of Ibsen’s classic The Master Builder.
Her productions are known for their profound psychological depth, compelling character development, and strong social and political resonance. Frecknall’s reinterpretations of classic works effortlessly highlight underlying social issues, making them strikingly relevant for today’s audiences.
-|-
She directed Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club (winner of seven Olivier Awards, including Best Director and Best Musical Revival 2022, as well as the Critics' Circle Award for Best Director 2022), and the critically acclaimed A Streetcar Named Desire and Summer and Smoke. Both productions won the Olivier Award for Best Revival and were nominated for Best Director. They are now also being staged on Broadway in New York.
Ibsen Artist in Residence
Since January 2025, Rebecca Frecknall is Ibsen Artist in Residence, an initiative of the Philip Loubser Foundation, which gives directors with an international ambition the opportunity to develop themselves artistically. The Ibsen Artist in Residence receives an annual budget for their own artistic development, also outside ITA.
Credits
after The Master Builder by Henrik Ibsen
adaptation and direction Rebecca Frecknall
translation Charlotte Barslund
stage design Chloe Lamford
lighting design Jack Knowles
sound design George Dennis
costume design An D'Huys
assistant director Maria Luttikhuis
-|-
private producers Joost & Marcelle Kuiper, Mechteld Daniels & Joris Kaak, Helga Lasschuijt & Dirk Raes and Hendrik Jan ten Have & Gabriella de Rooij
this production is supported by the Philip Loubser Foundation through the Ibsen Artist in Residency of Rebecca Frecknall
