The Master Builder and Other Plays Read online

HILDE: Oh, well, I suppose there must be trolls like that in the world too.

  SOLNESS [slowly getting to his feet]: What a good thing it is that you have come to me now.

  HILDE [regarding him intently]: Is it?

  SOLNESS: Because I’ve been so alone. Sitting here, staring so helplessly at it all. [Lowering his voice] The thing is, you see – that I’ve begun to feel so afraid – so terribly afraid of the younger generation.

  HILDE [snorts]: Bah – as if the younger generation were anything to be afraid of!

  SOLNESS: It of all things. That’s why I’ve locked myself away. [Confidentially] The younger generation is going to come here, I tell you, and bang on the door! Break in on me!

  HILDE: Then I think you should go and open the door to the younger generation.

  SOLNESS: Open the door?

  HILDE: Yes. And let the younger generation come in to you. Welcome it in.

  SOLNESS: No, no, no! The younger generation – it spells retribution, don’t you see. It will spearhead the turn. Come under a new banner, so to speak.

  HILDE [stands up, looks at him and says, with trembling lips]: Do you have a use for me, master builder?

  SOLNESS: Yes, now I most certainly do. Because you also come – under a new banner, so to speak. The young against the young, in other words –!

  DR HERDAL enters through the hall door.

  DR HERDAL: Ah – are you and the young lady still here?

  SOLNESS: Yes. We’ve had a great deal to talk about, us two.

  HILDE: Matters old and new.

  DR HERDAL: Well, well, have you now?

  HILDE: Oh, it’s been such fun. Because the master builder here – he has the most amazing memory, so he has. He can call to mind all sorts of little details at the drop of a hat.

  MRS SOLNESS enters through the door on the right.

  MRS SOLNESS: There, Miss Wangel, your room’s all ready for you now.

  HILDE: Oh, how kind you are to me!

  SOLNESS [to his wife]: The nursery?

  MRS SOLNESS: Yes. The middle one. But first I suppose we should go in to supper.

  SOLNESS [nodding to HILDE]: So Hilde will be sleeping in the nursery.

  MRS SOLNESS: Hilde?

  SOLNESS: Yes, Miss Wangel’s first name is Hilde. I knew her when she was a child.

  MRS SOLNESS: Oh, did you, Halvard? Well, shall we go through? Supper’s on the table.

  She takes DR HERDAL’s arm and leaves with him through the door on the right. HILDE, meanwhile, has picked up her travelling things.

  HILDE [in a hurried whisper to SOLNESS]: Is it true what you said? Do you have a use for me?

  SOLNESS [taking her things from her]: You are the one I have needed most sorely.

  HILDE [looking at him with rapturous, wondering eyes and clapping her hands]: Oh, you great, glorious world –!

  SOLNESS [expectantly]: What –?

  HILDE: Well, now I have my kingdom after all!

  SOLNESS [impulsively]: Hilde –!

  HILDE [her lips trembling again]: Almost – I was about to say.

  She exits to the right. SOLNESS follows her.

  Act Two

  A small, elegantly furnished drawing room in the home of Solness the master builder. In the rear wall, French windows leading out to a terrace and the garden. On the right a corner bay with plant stands and a large window. A similar corner bay on the left. In this, a narrow door flush with the wall. In each of the side walls an ordinary door. In the foreground on the right a console table under a large mirror. Flowers and plants in abundance. In the foreground on the left a sofa, table and chairs. Further back, a bookcase. In the middle of the room, in front of the window bay, a small table and a couple of chairs. It is mid-morning.

  HALVARD SOLNESS is sitting at the small table with RAGNAR BROVIK’s portfolio open in front of him. He leafs through the drawings, examining some of them closely. MRS SOLNESS moves noiselessly around the room with a little watering can, tending to the flowers. She is dressed in black as before. Her hat, coat and parasol are lying on the chair next to the mirror. SOLNESS looks up once or twice and observes her, all unnoticed.

  Neither of them speaks.

  KAJA FOSLI enters quietly through the door on the left.

  SOLNESS [looking round, says with casual indifference]: Oh, it’s you, is it?

  KAJA: I just wanted to let you know I’d arrived.

  SOLNESS: Yes, yes, all right. Isn’t Ragnar there too?

  KAJA: No, not yet. He had to stay and wait for the doctor. But he said he’d be along later to inquire –

  SOLNESS: How is the old man today?

  KAJA: Not good. He very much regrets that he’ll have to keep to his bed today.

  SOLNESS: Heavens, yes. Of course he must. Now you go and get on with your work.

  KAJA: Yes. [Pauses in the doorway] Would you want to speak to Ragnar when he gets here?

  SOLNESS: No – I don’t know of any reason to.

  KAJA goes out through the door on the left.

  SOLNESS carries on leafing through the drawings.

  MRS SOLNESS [over by the plants]: I wonder if he isn’t going to die as well.

  SOLNESS [looking over at her]: As well? As well as who?

  MRS SOLNESS [not replying to this]: Oh, yes; old Brovik – it looks as if he’s going to die now too, Halvard. You’ll see.

  SOLNESS: Aline dear, weren’t you going for a walk?

  MRS SOLNESS: Well, yes, I was actually.

  She carries on seeing to the flowers.

  SOLNESS [bent over the drawings]: Is she still asleep?

  MRS SOLNESS [looking at him]: Is it Miss Wangel you’re sitting there thinking about?

  SOLNESS [nonchalantly]: I just happened to call her to mind.

  MRS SOLNESS: Miss Wangel has been up for ages.

  SOLNESS: Oh, has she now?

  MRS SOLNESS: When I looked in she was mending her clothes.

  She walks over to the mirror and slowly puts on her hat.

  SOLNESS [after a brief pause]: Well, we found a use for a nursery after all, didn’t we, Aline?

  MRS SOLNESS: Yes, I suppose we did.

  SOLNESS: And that’s better, I’d say, than having them all standing there empty.

  MRS SOLNESS: All that empty space is quite dreadful. You’re right about that.

  SOLNESS [closing the portfolio, rising and walking over to her]: Just you wait and see, Aline, from now on things will be better for us. Much pleasanter. Easier to live. – Especially for you.

  MRS SOLNESS: From now on?

  SOLNESS: Yes, believe you me, Aline –

  MRS SOLNESS: You mean – now that she has come here?

  SOLNESS [controlling himself]: I mean, of course – once we’ve moved into the new house.

  MRS SOLNESS [picking up her coat]: Oh, do you think so, Halvard? That things will be better then?

  SOLNESS: Well, I can’t imagine otherwise. And surely you must think so too?

  MRS SOLNESS: I’ve no thoughts whatsoever about the new house.

  SOLNESS [despondently]: It truly hurts me to hear that. Because it was mainly for your sake I built it, you know. [He goes to help her with her coat.]

  MRS SOLNESS [pulling away]: Really you do far too much for my sake.

  SOLNESS [more vehemently]: No, no, you simply mustn’t say such things, Aline! I can’t bear to hear you talk like that!

  MRS SOLNESS: Well, then, I won’t say it, Halvard.

  SOLNESS: I stand by what I said, though. It’s going to be so good for you over there in the new house, you’ll see.

  MRS SOLNESS: Oh, God – good for me –!

  SOLNESS [eagerly]: Yes, of course! Of that you can be sure, Aline! Because there, you see – you’ll have so many things to remind you of your own –

  MRS SOLNESS: Of everything that was once Father’s and Mother’s. – And that burned down – all of it.

  SOLNESS [softly]: Yes, I know, my poor Aline. What a dreadfully hard blow for you that was.

&n
bsp; MRS SOLNESS [crying out]: You can build whatever in the world you want, Halvard – but you’ll never be able to build a real home for me again.

  SOLNESS [walking off across the room]: Well, then, for heaven’s sake let’s not talk about this any more.

  MRS SOLNESS: But we never do talk about it anyway. Because you merely brush it aside –

  SOLNESS [stopping short and staring at her]: I do? And why should I do that? Brush it aside?

  MRS SOLNESS: Oh yes, Halvard, I know you so well. You want so much to shield me. And excuse me too. As much – as ever you can.

  SOLNESS [with amazement in his eyes]: You? Is it you – yourself, you’re speaking of, Aline!

  MRS SOLNESS: Well, I don’t know who else it could be but me.

  SOLNESS [involuntarily, to himself]: That too!

  MRS SOLNESS: Because with the old house – well, there was nothing to be done about that. Good heavens – it was an accident, and the damage was done, so –

  SOLNESS: Yes, you’re right. Accidents will happen – so they say.

  MRS SOLNESS: But what the fire brought in its wake –! That’s the terrible thing! That, that, that!

  SOLNESS [vehemently]: Just don’t think about that, Aline!

  MRS SOLNESS: Ah, but that is the one thing I’m bound to think about. And finally be allowed to talk about too. Because I don’t think I can stand it any longer. And the fact that I can never forgive myself –!

  SOLNESS [exclaiming]: Yourself –!

  MRS SOLNESS: Yes, because I had duties on both sides. To you and to the babies. I should have hardened myself. Not let the shock get such a hold on me. Or the grief over my home having burned down. [Wringing her hands] Oh, if only I could have, Halvard!

  SOLNESS [slowly, shaken, drawing nearer]: Aline – you must promise me that you will never think such thoughts again. Promise me, please, dear!

  MRS SOLNESS: Oh, God – promise! Promise! I could promise you anything you like –

  SOLNESS [clenching his hands and crossing the floor]: Oh, but this is all so hopeless! Never a ray of sunshine! Not so much as a glimmer of light falling into this home!

  MRS SOLNESS: This is no home, Halvard.

  SOLNESS: Oh no, well may you say that. [Heavily] And God knows you could be right – maybe things won’t be any better for us in the new house either.

  MRS SOLNESS: They never will. Just as empty.1 Just as desolate. There as here.

  SOLNESS [fiercely]: Then why on earth did we build it? Can you tell me that?

  MRS SOLNESS: No, you’ll have to answer that question yourself.

  SOLNESS [glancing suspiciously at her]: What do you mean by that, Aline?

  MRS SOLNESS: What do I mean?

  SOLNESS: Yes, dammit –! It was so strange the way you said it. As if you were hinting at something else.

  MRS SOLNESS: No, I can honestly assure you –

  SOLNESS: Oh, please – I know what I know. And I see things, and hear things too, you know, Aline. Of that you can be sure!

  MRS SOLNESS: But what things? What?

  SOLNESS [coming up to face her]: Are you going to tell me that you don’t detect some sly, underhand meaning in the most innocent word I say?

  MRS SOLNESS: I, you say! I do that!

  SOLNESS [laughing]: Ha-ha-ha! Well, I suppose it’s fair enough, Aline! When you have to put up with having a sick man in the house, then –

  MRS SOLNESS [in alarm]: Sick! Are you sick, Halvard?

  SOLNESS [bursting out]: A half-mad man, then! A deranged man! Call me what you will.

  MRS SOLNESS [gropes for the back of the chair and sits down]: Halvard – for the love of God –!

  SOLNESS: But you’re wrong, both of you. Both you and the doctor. That’s not how things are with me.

  He paces up and down the room. MRS SOLNESS follows him anxiously with her eyes. Then he walks up to her.

  SOLNESS [calmly]: In fact there’s nothing wrong with me at all.

  MRS SOLNESS: No, of course not! But what is it that’s troubling you, then?

  SOLNESS: What’s troubling me is that I so often come close to collapsing under this terrible burden of debt –

  MRS SOLNESS: Debt, you say! But you’re not in debt to anyone, Halvard!

  SOLNESS [softly, with emotion]: In bottomless debt and obligation to you – to you, to you, Aline.

  MRS SOLNESS [getting slowly to her feet]: What’s behind all this? You might as well tell me right now.

  SOLNESS: There is nothing behind it! I have never done anything to hurt you. Not knowingly or willingly, at any rate. And yet – it feels as though I am weighed down by a crushing debt.

  MRS SOLNESS: A debt to me?

  SOLNESS: Mainly to you.

  MRS SOLNESS: In that case you are – sick after all, Halvard.

  SOLNESS [heavily]: I think I must be. Or something of the sort. [His eyes go to the door on the right, which opens.] Ah! Now things are brightening up.

  HILDE WANGEL comes in. She has altered a few things on her costume. The skirt of her dress is no longer looped up.2

  HILDE: Good morning, Mr Master Builder!

  SOLNESS [nodding]: Slept well?

  HILDE: Quite blissfully! As if I were in a cradle. Ooh – lay and stretched like – like a princess!

  SOLNESS [with a little smile]: Pretty comfortably, then.

  HILDE: I should say so.

  SOLNESS: And dreamed too, no doubt?

  HILDE: Oh yes. But that was horrid.

  SOLNESS: Oh?

  HILDE: Yes, because I dreamed that I fell off a terribly high, steep cliff. Don’t you ever have dreams like that, master builder?

  SOLNESS: Well, yes – now and again, I –

  HILDE: It’s so exciting – when you’re falling and falling like that.

  SOLNESS: I find it rather chilling myself.

  HILDE: Do you draw your legs up underneath you while it’s happening?

  SOLNESS: Yes, as high as I can.

  HILDE: So do I.

  MRS SOLNESS [picking up her parasol]: Well, I suppose I’d better be off into town, Halvard. [TO HILDE] And I’ll see if I can’t pick up the odd thing that you might have need of, Miss Wangel.

  HILDE [making as if to throw her arms around her]: Oh, dear, sweet Mrs Solness! You really are far too kind! Terribly kind –

  MRS SOLNESS [fending her off, freeing herself]: Oh, by no means. It’s no more than my duty, after all. And so I’m quite happy to do it.

  HILDE [huffily, pouting]: Anyway, I’m quite sure I could go out as I am – now that I’ve done this up so nicely. Or couldn’t I?

  MRS SOLNESS: To be honest I think you’d probably get a few looks.

  HILDE [snorting]: Pooh! Is that all? But that would just be fun.

  SOLNESS [with veiled sarcasm]: Ah, but you see, then people might get the idea that you were mad as well.

  HILDE: Mad? Are there so tremendously many mad people living in this town then?

  SOLNESS [pointing to his temple]: You’re looking at one right here for a start.

  HILDE: You – master builder!

  MRS SOLNESS: Oh! Now Halvard dear, really!

  SOLNESS: Haven’t you noticed that yet?

  HILDE: No, I certainly have not. [Collects herself and gives a little laugh.] Or at least, in one respect maybe.

  SOLNESS: There now, d’you hear that, Aline?

  MRS SOLNESS: And what might that be, Miss Wangel?

  HILDE: No, I’m not telling.

  SOLNESS: Oh yes, do tell.

  HILDE: No, thank you – I’m not that mad.

  MRS SOLNESS: When you and Miss Wangel are alone I’m sure she’ll tell you, Halvard.

  SOLNESS: Ah – so that’s what you think, is it?

  MRS SOLNESS: Oh yes, indeed. After all, you’ve known her so well in the past. Since she was just a child – so you say. [She leaves by the door on the left.]

  HILDE [after a brief pause]: Your wife, can she really not bring herself to like me?

  SOLNESS: Did you notice somet
hing of that sort about her?

  HILDE: Didn’t you notice it yourself?

  SOLNESS [evasively]: Aline has become so very shy of people over the past few years.

  HILDE: That as well, is she?

  SOLNESS: But if you could just get to know her properly. – Because you see, deep down she’s so nice – and so kind – and so good.

  HILDE [impatiently]: But if she’s all that – why does she keep going on about duty!

  SOLNESS: About duty?

  HILDE: Yes, didn’t she just say that she was going out to buy some things for me. Because it was her duty – she said. Oh, I can’t abide that nasty, horrid word!

  SOLNESS: But why?

  HILDE: Oh, because it sounds so cold and sharp and prickly. Duty – duty – duty. Don’t you think so too? That it sort of pricks at you?

  SOLNESS: Hm – I’ve never given it much thought.

  HILDE: Oh, but it does! And if she is as nice – as you say she is – why would she say such a thing?

  SOLNESS: But good heavens, what should she have said?

  HILDE: She could have said that she was going to do it because she liked me so much. She could have said something like that. Something really warm and sincere – you know?

  SOLNESS [regarding her]: Is that how you would have it?

  HILDE: Yes, just like that.

  She walks around the room, stops by the bookcase and looks at the books.

  HILDE: You have a great many books, sir.

  SOLNESS: Oh yes, I’ve built up quite a collection.

  HILDE: And do you read all these books?

  SOLNESS: In the past I did try to. Do you read?

  HILDE: No! Never – not any more. Because I can never make head nor tail of it anyway.

  SOLNESS: That’s just how I feel too.

  HILDE wanders around, stops by the small table, opens the portfolio and leafs through it.

  HILDE: Did you do all these drawings?

  SOLNESS: No, they were done by a young man I have to help me.

  HILDE: Someone you’ve trained yourself?

  SOLNESS: Oh well, I suppose he’s learned a thing or two from me as well.

  HILDE [sitting down]: He must be very good then. [Running an eye over a drawing] Isn’t he?

  SOLNESS: Oh, he’s not bad. For my purposes, that is –

  HILDE: Oh, but of course! He must be frightfully good.

  SOLNESS: You feel you can tell that from those drawings?