Switzerland

Did someone at the Ensemble know about the showing of the brilliant 8-part television version of ‘Ripley’ before scheduling this play? If so, then congratulations, for the audience seemed completely ready for this ‘spill the beans’ look at ageing writer Patricia Highsmith and her appalling creation. Australian playwright Joanna Murray-Smith wrote the play, which premiered in Sydney in November 2014 and has been seen in many international cities. It remains enthralling and repellent. 

A lesbian who dislikes other women and a misanthrope prone to racist and anti-Sematic rants, Highsmith has moved to complete aloneness in the middle of the Swiss Alps. Excellently portrayed by Toni Scanlan, she’s battling to continue her writing, but constantly getting nowhere.

Enter Edward Ridgeway (Laurence Boxhall), a young man from her publishers in New York, who is intent on getting her to write one last book about Tom Ripley, the fictional murderer who has now grabbed the world’s attention. He’s prepared to do almost anything to land this big fish. ‘I’m fascinating,’ says Highsmith, ‘you’re not.’ 

Arriving with a variety of presents which are getting him nowhere ­- including 6 cans of soup and 3 jars of peanut butter – he finally presents her with a vicious knife. This goes immediately into her neat display of weaponry. And so they begin to invent a story together.

This is the portrait of an artist in serious decline, and also a pastiche of a Highsmith novel with its capacity to create guilty unease - it succeeds in both directions. The two actors go full speed ahead, Scanlan showing her fetish for implements of death and Boxhall showing how far he’ll go to get what is wanted.

The director, Shaun Rennie, adds two lengthy pauses between the scenes but keeps the adrenaline level high. The setting by Veronique Benett is exceptional: a huge stairway up to another floor and barred windows showing the brutal Swiss Alps. It keeps us aware of the cold, feature-less world that Highsmith has welcomed.

Frank Hatherley

Buy the play script.

Photographer: Brett Boardman